Toyota GR86: Putting pedal to the mettle

I LOVE a car with a story, and the Toyota GR86 has several. There’s the heritage one, of course, which is all about how this car is an homage to the AE86, a lightweight, well-balanced legend from 40 years ago.

So perfectly fit for racing was the little Toyota that it slew giants in its time, among them BMWs, Mercedes-Benzes, Rovers and Alfa Romeos. It stayed competitive years after it went out of production, and kept bringing home the silverware for private teams. It remains a favourite of club racing hotshoes to this day, because it is just that good.

Then there’s the popular culture angle, which sees the plucky Toyota immortalised in the Initial D manga series that ultimately spawned a movie. Jay Chou played the main character, but an AE86 supplied the stardom.

In many ways, the modern day 86 is relentlessly cool in itself. A Toyota engineer once told me the car is so low-slung, it’s possible to open the door and stub a cigarette out on the road (not that smoking is cool, kids). 

And when Toyota first showed off its progenitor, the FT-86 concept car, it decided to paint it a vivid shade of red inspired by the scarlet backsides of a certain Japanese monkey, just because.

If that doesn’t tell you what a fun car the GR86 is meant to be, then the fact that it comes with three pedals ought to. Sure, there’s an automatic version (for S$8,000 extra), but unless you lost a leg in the war, that one isn’t worth considering.

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You want your GR86 with a clutch and a six-speed manual gearbox because that would be the only way to do justice to its gloriously uncomplicated nature. To get it going in anger, you’re supposed to do your part, stamping on the clutch pedal before you snick the gear lever across the gate, timing everything just so, revving the buzzy engine hard until the digital dash beeps and flashes a warning that it’s time to snatch another quick gearshift.

If that doesn’t sound like a simple pleasure to you, you’ll hate the Toyota. It’s all too easy to perceive its simplicity as crudeness, and the GR86 certainly doesn’t do itself any favours. Beyond the classically phallic proportions, it actually holds very little showroom appeal.

The cabin is full of toy car plastics, the rear seats are such a joke they should have their own Netflix special, and the digital screens look rudimentary at best. The spare tyre sticks up from the boot’s floor.

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Refinement isn’t the GR86’s thing, either. The suspension sets the car on edge, making it jitter busily over all sorts of roads. At some revs the test car’s cabin rattled like it was a decade old.

And when you’re on the highway it’s like someone forgot to install noise insulation. After a drive to Sepang, I reckon your spine and ears would be knackered.

But the whole point of this car is that you’ll find taking it to Sepang every other weekend worth the effort. It’s too lovely and playful to drive only on the road, after all.

Everything seems to build up nicely as you turn up the wick, whether it’s how the steering loads up with weight in a corner, or how you can feel the tail starting to step outwards as you feed in power through an exit.

Mind you, the GR86 isn’t a particularly fast car. With this iteration the engine has grown from 2.0 to 2.4 litres, so the acceleration is more lusty, but there’s still no turbo so there’s never a wallop.

But that’s part of the reason the Toyota feels like a riposte to today’s fast cars, which are all about big power and big grip from big tyres, needing you to supply only the big balls to make use of it all.

Instead, the GR86 feels like something created to engage the driver, with an analogue experience that rewards dedication and feel. If rivals test your bravery, the Toyota tests your mettle.

For similar money, the other fun cars to consider are the Mini Cooper S or Volkswagen Golf GTI, and the Kia Stinger as a wildcard. The Toyota is the most impractical and unrefined of the lot (yes, even next to the Mini), feels most like it was built down to a cost and offers the fewest features.

But it’s the purest driving experience this side of a Porsche Cayman, and is the one I would buy if I found a quarter of a million under the sofa. It seems expensive for what you get, but it’s a bargain for what it is.

Toyota GR86 Engine 2,387 cc, boxer four Power 231 hp at 7,000 rpm Torque 250 Nm at 3,700 rpm Gearbox Six-speed manual 0-100km/h 6.3 seconds Top Speed 226 km/h Fuel Efficiency 8.8 L/100 km Agent Borneo Motors Price S$138,888 without COE Available Now