Toyota FT-86 Concept: Return of the Hachiroku

Tofu delivery in the 21st century Tofu delivery in the 21st century

Toyota is in dire straits. Akio Toyoda, 53-year-old grandson of the company founder, took over as president this past June after Toyota posted its first loss in its 70 year history. Toyoda isn't wasting people's time with corporate double-speak. He's as plain-speaking as they come. In a recent conference-call, he said Toyota became cocky with success, it expanded in an undisciplined fashion, it's been in denial about the peril it faces, and it is now "grasping for salvation." For anyone who's read Jim Collins' How The Mighty Fall, you'll recognize this is step four out of five. What's step five? Capitulation to irrelevance or death. That Toyoda is willing to talk in such frank terms shows how hard he's tying to focus his company on righting it's ship. His first order of business is to "build better cars."

Tofu delivery in the 20th century Tofu delivery in the 20th century

The FT-86 attempts to address two issues at once. First is to make a better car. The second is to make an exciting car, something Toyota doesn't currently build. But first, a little history lesson. For years, Toyota made good rear-wheel-drive cars. The architecture was cheap and easy to build. But by the late 1970s, it was clear that the superior packaging of front-wheel-drive was the way to go with small cars. The fifth-generation Corolla (1983-1987) was built in both front- and rear-wheel-drive configurations. When the '88 Corollas debuted, that was the end of the Japanese RWD compact car. The last RWD Corolla, known as the AE-86 for it's chassis code, was mythologized as a great driver's car. And it was. It was small, light and powerful with classic RWD driving dynamics. It's become a favorite for drifting, and was immortalized in the Initial D manga and anime. A generation of young car enthusiasts have grown up since then idolizing the "hachiroku" ("eighty-six" in Japanese.)

The FT-86 has had a long and very public on-again/off-again gestation period. Constant reports have been flooding on over the past two years. "It's on!" "It's off!" "It's on again!" "It's off again!" But now we finally have the car in the flesh and we have Akio Toyoda's word that it will go into production. The most unusual thing about this Toyota is that it has a Subaru engine in it. It's a joint-production between the two companies, which has spawned the name "Toyobaru." Subaru is supposed to get their own version of the car, although no images have come to light yet. While Toyota purists might complain, the Subaru engine is an excellent choice. Their 2.0 liter flat-four is a very good engine, the basis of Subaru's very successful WRX street and rally championship winning cars. Because it's a flat-four, it sits lower than Toyota's inline four. That gives it a lower center of gravity and a lower, more aerodynamic hood. Of course, with the rear-wheel-drive architecture, it's going to have very responsive and tunable handling. A six-speed manual transmission adds to the driving fun. A price that should be only a few ticks over $20K should make it affordable to just about everyone. It may not contain any styling cues from the original AE-86, but in every way that matters, it is a modern hachiroku.

Hot on the heals of Toyota announcing the FT-86, Sony has released this trailer from the upcoming Gran Turismo 5 video game. The music is kind of annoying, but there's no denying the excitement of seeing the car in action. Keep an eye out for the white car near the end of the video. It's the original AE-86 drifting alongside the new FT-86.

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