vader1

You know what would have been a great little sports car thats light and fun for about $20k? The MR2 Spyder. But every time I went to a dealer to look at one they had sticker prices near $30k with a few options on them.

MR2 Spyder with 2ZZ for high twenties = winner
MR2 Spyder with standard engine for $20k = winner
MR2 Spyder with standard engine and high twenties = total loser


It almost seems with the price creep and fairly weak engine in the FT86 Toyota is heading for the same mistake EXCEPT for the the FT86 looks like a head turner that the Spyder wasn't.

ZDan

I'm all for an even smaller/lighter version.

Note that this would be *in addition to* the bigger/heavier/more-powerful FT86, so it looks like we're getting TWO new FR sports/sporty cars from Toyota instead of one.

Personally, 109hp, if it's *truly* lightweight (lighter than a Miata), sounds WAY the F cooler than all the 3300+ lb. luxobarge "sports" cars and coupes we've been getting lately.

But here's hoping for a turbo option for the "big" FT-86 *and* it's baby bro

fishfryer

I'm not sure why this Ft-86 seems to be so important to people on an S2000 forum. Our cars are just so much better than that thing in every way that it shouldn't even register on our radars. Now the 5.0 Stang is another story....

ZDan

And why a 3500 lb. live-axle Mustang is on any true sports car enthusiast's radar is beyond me!

whiteflash

Because for the last 5+ years toyota has completely abandoned all attempts at a "sporty" car. Their closest thing is a scion tc.... which well, isn't sporty at all.

With the addition of this 86 lineup (LFA, FT86, and FT86Lite?) it shows that they're trying to put something out on the market that is closer to being enthusiast friendly. Even at 109bhp a light car can still be fun, especially when having a 50/50 ratio and being RWD. According to motortrend toyota's intentions are to get it down to 2200lbs, so I'd guess 2300. I mean even in my god awful 05 Sentra 1.8s Auto, I could still have fun swinging around corners staying planted. If anything this is an obvious attempt to play in the field with the cr-z.

This 86 lineup has been being built and tweaked for 5+ years now. In 2005 there was the speculation and rumors going around dealerships. I'm shocked that toyota even thought the subaru powered 86 was going be sub 20k with all that r&d. Even at 25k, a 50/50 weighted, boxer powered car will be a great pricepoint.

Also, I fail to understand why you would question why this is on our radars...

A) It carries the 86 name, and the company has spent gobs amount of money to make sure that it follows its predecessor, but improved.

B) This car is essentially a mixture of two cars and legendary blood. It's got rx-8 'practibility', The Subaru JDM 2.0 powerplant, and the precision of the 86 heritage

C) The G Sports edition.... Is basically a JDM STi, in a 50/50 RWD Coupe. What in the world is NOT to love about that? And how is that NOT comparable to our s2k's?

The reason why we all love our s2000's is because it is a drivers car. There's no comparison (in the price range) to the way our cars drive and handle. These 86 lineups were bred with the same intentions. It was stated before by Toyota that there was no sacrificing on this lineup, that it wouldn't come out until they felt that it could make the 86 name proud. I'm willing to bet after five plus years of working on this, they feel as if it can carry on the torch. Also if you read interviews, you will notice that the goal of this car in terms of performance was geared towards fast turns and drift. With that as the intention, I would be shocked if this thing didn't DRIVE.

If anything you should be VERY excited about this car, because it potentially is the s2000 of the 201X's

Mr.E.G.

Agreed.

I had a Honda Civic that made about 60hp to the wheels (that's not a typeo) so I swapped in a 2.0 liter that made more than twice that much which I then tuned much further as time went on. It took all of about 10 hours to fix that problem.

My Miata came with about 90 whp. A crappy off-the-shelf turbo kit has literally doubled the whp with a very conservative tune.

I want small, independent suspension all around (I'm totally fine with Mac Struts), light weight, halfway decent looking (I'm flexible, just don't make it look like the goddamn Yaris or some other sort of Fisher Price toddle mobile), a fixed roof, and a manual transmission.

I'd like a new car that has some potential. I can figure the rest out on my own.

Saki GT

I'm going to replace the S2000 at some point, so I want there to be tossable roadsters on the market to choose from.

Lice Locket

Here's my two cents:

Even though the CRZ was not what a lot of people expected it to be, Honda was very down to earth about the specs and the price, which resulted in the low expectation of the car. Ironically, this resulted in very positive reviews of the car.

The FT-86 now appears to be very overhyped and may not live to its expectation, which is the opposite of what the CR-Z experienced. The high price range now brings the comparable trim down to the CRZ for the "under $20k" model.

Yes, for that price you could get the Miata. But the Miata now is not the raw, fun-to-drive car it was.

I originally was an FT-86 fan, but now that they are in the same price range, I will definitely put them as in the same category and hopefully test drive them both before making any judgement (but I'm still leaning towards the FT-86 more as I probably will not get the cheapest model w/ 109 hp). My friend works in Honda and will be able to drive a CRZ next month

aklucsarits

Yup, 150" is smaller than a 1st gen Miata...

Andrew

tiger1964

Yup. So, even after an impressive test-drive in the Toyota, drove back to the Mazda dealer and bought a Miata.

I guess after getting beat down on price all day on Camrys, whatever, when they think they have a must-have on their hands it's natural to charge a lot for it. And I went elsewhere.

Can't remember the last time a neat car came out and dealers didn't "gouge". Reemmber when the new Minis came out? How about early Datsun Z's? "Law of supply and demand".

You'd think that quick (if not fast), light and affordable is an acheivable combination.