Crafting Cars for the Driver

The most anticipated among the exhibited vehicles is the concept for a compact FR sports car called the "FT-86 Concept." As its name suggests, this model hints at the revival of the legendary AE86 (Hachi-Roku).

The overarching theme for this car is "to allow more people to experience the joy of driving." With recent sports cars often making it difficult to discern whether the car is fast or the driver is skilled, development began with the desire to "create a car centered around the driver."

A key feature of the model announced today is the combination of a compact size that is easy for drivers to handle with a 2-liter naturally aspirated engine. The body dimensions are 4160mm in length, 1760mm in width, and 1260mm in height, with a wheelbase of 2570mm. This will be powered by a low-center-of-gravity 2-liter horizontally opposed engine developed by Subaru.

A New Beginning for Toyota Sports Cars

The exterior is designed with the concept of "sculpted muscles," and the body color is a novel shade of red, chosen to signify the recommencement of Toyota's sports car lineage.

Regarding the FT-86 Concept, Toyota has announced its pursuit of "handling performance that precisely matches the driver's intentions, brought about by lightweight and low-center-of-gravity vehicle characteristics and a racing-car-like driving position," as well as "the coexistence of high output and environmental performance" through measures such as body weight reduction.