Toyota has confirmed that the next generation of their sports coupe – the GT86 will be out by late-2018 or 2019. The car will sit below the much awaited Toyota Supra in the Japanese manufacturer’s sports car line-up.
The next generation GT86 is expected to follow the same successful formula of front engine, rear-wheel drive two-seater sports car. This has been the defining principle of the Hachi Roku moniker and was first seen in the AE86 of the 1980s.
The Toyota-Subaru partnership provided the GT86 with the celebrated boxer engine which imparted the 197bhp sports car a low centre of gravity and hence made the GT86 the good handling car that it is. So for the 2.0-litre boxer engine from Subaru, a continued partnership for the second generation of the GT86 is likely but nothing is official yet. With a hope that they differentiate the car further more than the identical BRZ.
Then there were rumours floating around of an open-top version of the GT86. This speculation has now been dropped as Toyota wants to prioritise on other projects rather than a drop-top GT86. The other priorities for Toyota include the aforementioned Supra which is currently under development in cooperation with BMW. BMW is working towards the Z5 coupe, sharing the platform with the new Supra.
Toyota Europe boss, Karl Schlicht, is reported to have confirmed about the next gen GT86, “The GT86 is at the stage where it’s being decided on the next one. The GT86 will carry on. The car serves a big purpose. A chief engineer will be assigned and away we go. Will it be with Subaru? I don’t know. But for the concept to carry on, with the low engine, we’d have to do that. There are a lot of reasons to continue with Subaru.”
There is no new direct rival to the GT86 right now. Since its launch in 2012, the GT86 faced competition from BMW 1 Series coupe, Mazda MX5, Audi TT and Nissan 370Z. All of which are due for a refreshment as well, so GT86 could be the first one with a new generation.
