I’ll wrap up this year’s coverage of 86 Day with this pit walk video from Fuji Speedway. It starts off in the parking lot and then winds through all of the vendors that were present. It seems the Toyota GT-86 / Scion FR-S / Subaru BRZ has already been well embraced by the Japanese aftermarket tuners. There’s a couple of N2 cars from Crystal Body Yokohama and Tec-Arts and D1 FT-86’s from Up Garage and HKS.
What?!? Two incredible Scion FR-S/Subaru BRZ/Toyota GT-86 reviews in two days? Now that the car is starting to see some production numbers and the big names have already finished with the press fleet, some of the independent car reviewers are getting their hands on them. This is good news for us since these guys tend to spend more time and passion reviewing the cars. As a follow up to yesterday’s FR-S vs. BRZ track comparison by Everyday Driver, Nino Karotta takes a GT-86 across Europe. He visits some of the best roads in Europe to see what it takes to drive the GT-86 fast and to drift it. He also compares the GT-86 on track with his personal AE86, the car’s spiritual successor. Nino brings a dial caliper with him on his trek across Europe to keep track of how much tire tread he’s burning off the rear wheels.
These guys actually get what makes the Scion FR-S/Subaru BRZ/Toyota GT-86 special. Just about every other review of the cars are too vague. Yes, the car handles well and is balanced, but it goes beyond that. The way the car handles, thanks to the low center of gravity of the boxer engine, could almost be described as fundamentally different from all other FR cars with pistons that move vertically. I’m going to describe it in much more detail in my review of my friend’s BRZ that should go live later this week, but for now listen to what these guys are saying about how the cars handle. They notice a lot of the unique sensations that everybody else missed in their reviews. It’s also the best run down of how the different suspension tuning philosophies for the Scion and Subaru translate on track that I’ve seen so far.
The Toyota FT-86 (aka the Toyota GT-86, Scion FR-S and Subaru BRZ) has three stages of Vehicle Stability Control: on, sport and off. These guys get to try out all of the settings on the skid pad at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi. The facility has a water barrier slalom similar to the one they have at the Porsche Experience Center. Thankfully the three settings are all quite different and will be pretty useful.
These are the European launch videos for the Toyota GT-86 / Scion FR-S / Subaru BRZ. They go into the development of the car more than any of the American promotional videos I’ve seen.
Part 1: Engine Development. The 2.0 liter boxer engine is perfectly square with 86mm bore and 86mm stroke. It uses both direct and port injection.