Toyota has finally built a turbocharged GR86, but you can’t have it just yet!
Toyota’s much-loved GT86 entered its second generation last year (now called GR86) with a bigger engine bringing slightly more power.
While the GR86 features more power thanks to Subaru’s 2.4-litre four-cylinder horizontally opposed engine that pumps out 232bhp and 250Nm of torque (that’s 35bhp and 45Nm more than the car it replaces), many enthusiasts believed that Toyota should have just slapped on a turbocharged engine to the rear-wheel-drive four-seater sports car.
Toyota builds turbocharged GR86
Well, according to Australian magazine CarSales, Toyota has actually done it, utilising the same turbocharged G16E-GTS 1.6-litre inline three-cylinder powerplant used in the GR Yaris and GR Corolla, which gives the sports car a healthy 300bhp and 400Nm of torque.
However, before you check your bank balance to see how much you need to save up for the spiced-up GR86, the turbocharged car was apparently engineered as a testbed to help Toyota further develop synthetic fuel engines.
For your information, Toyota has already conducted a hydrogen-powered engine study using the same engine base on the Corolla Sport racing car in the Japanese Super Taikyu racing series.
Despite this disappointing revelation, Gazoo Racing’s chief engineer, Naoyuki Sakamoto, did give some glimmer of hope as he hinted that the GR86 turbo might appear in an actual production version in the future.
“Yes, we are thinking for the future about the possibility of using it, but there are no concrete plans at the moment. For now, we’re just using it to develop carbon-neutral fuels”, said Sakamoto.
Let’s just hope the test car has a good outcome and that the performance of the Toyota GR86 with the G16E-GTS engine does well at the Japanese Super Taikyu race.