Toyota FT-86 and Subaru BRZ to launch next month

Toyota FT-86 (pictured) & Subaru BRZ to debut at Tokyo

The road from concept to reality has been a long one for the Toyota FT-86 and Subaru BRZ. But the wait is almost over for the Toyota/Subaru joint development, with production-ready versions of the FT-86 and BRZ planned for the Tokyo Motor Show next month.

The aim was to produce a sporty, fun coupe for under £20k, and although that still seems to be the general consensus we wouldn’t be surprised to see the FT-86 come in at around £25k and the more powerful BRZ getting close to £30k when they actually arrive in 2012.

But what’s on offer in the Toyota FT-86 and the Subarua BRX? And what differentiates them?

The FT-86 will be the cheaper option, but will still come with the Subaru flat-four engine and a quite useful 200bhp to play with. It will also be light – it weighs in at just 1100kg – which should make for some better than half-decent performance.

RWD is the order of the day for the FT-86 – and the Subaru too, surprisingly – with a suspension set-up tuned to Europe’s roads and damping which Toyota say is streets ahead of any comparably priced car.

A six-speed manual ’box is the default setting for both the Toyota and Subaru, but a flappy-paddle auto ‘box is also on offer. Both cars will come with a limited slip diff as standard.

The more expensive BRZ gets the same engine as the Toyota, but in the Subaru it gets wrung-out to produce around 295bhp. which should make the equally light BRZ something of a supercar killer.

Apart from the extra horses – and some badging and styling tweaks – the Subaru BRZ will be identical to its cousin from Toyota (and there will also be a Scion version for North America), but it will cost around £5k more, justified – quite reasonably - by the extra power on offer.

But with both the FT-86 and the BRZ using the same basic engine, we can see a big opportunity for aftermarket chippers to bring the FT-86 up to BRZ levels of power for a lot less than the £5k price differential.

By Cars UK