In a world of increasing performance and ever-tightening regulations, it shone as a beacon of hope for the purist who yearned to read not about horsepower and 0-60 times but about response, feel and balance.
Ten years – and around 7500 UK sales – after the GT’s release, a new GR86 slides into a world even more contrary to its spirit and promises to address the two major problem areas of the old one: interior build quality and torque.
Some sense of the cheap-and-cheerful remains, but it now more optimistically recalls the plastic-dominated but control-laden interiors of the Japanese super-sports cars of yesteryear.
The Subaru flat-four under the bonnet is now up to 2.4 litres, from 2 litres in the GT86
Digital dials range around a central tacho/speedometer with horizontal readouts for battery voltage, water and oil temperatures.
Echoes of legends past resonate throughout, and the red-illuminated climate controls above ‘aluminium’ toggle switches bring the Nissan GTR to mind. But this is mere dressing, of course.
The seats are by far the most expensive part of the interior – as in many enthusiasts’ own builds – and the driving position is superb.
Clockwise from top: interior build quality has improved; the Toyota GR86 is part of a dying breed of sports cars still available with a manual transmission; digital dials are crisp
