Motors - Toyota's FT-86

Toyota FT-86

I've been hearing recently about Toyota's ‘insurance policy' for the FT-86 project and I have this sudden but very certain fear that the car will never make production, no matter what the economic conditions.

When the original concept came out and Toyota proudly announced that they would make it, they promised several things. Firstly they promised that it would be out by 2012 at the latest, maybe sooner. Secondly they promised it would be under £20k because they wanted to take it right to the heart of MX-5 territory. 

Finally, the biggest promise was that this would be a proper sports car, no half baked efforts, oh no this would be a car worth of the term ‘sports car’.

To show they were serious they decided not to use an engine of their own, no they popped down the road to Subaru and offered them a slice of the project if they would stump up the engine. Oh and the cars base. And the rear suspension. But seeing as Toyota were happy to fund the project, Subaru said ‘why not’.

The cars very low slung nose needs to be raised by about 50mm according to Toyota’s chief designer Jaromir Cech, to allow the car to meet pedestrian impact regulations but seeing as it’s about 100mm lower than it would be with a conventional four cylinder engine anyway, I’d offer no complaints. Concepts like this always lose something in the transition to production.

The base is the current Subaru Legacy with the Impreza’s rear multi-link suspension and the 6 speed gearbox normally attached to the Impreza’s four cylinder Boxer engine, in this car it is naturally aspirated, developing around 200bhp. With a rumoured 1250kg weight, the FT-86 was shaping up to be the first proper sports car from mainstream manufacturers since the Honda S2000 and look set to give BMW’s Z4 and Audi’s TT rather bloody noses.

Things were going wonderfully; Toyota was looking like it still knew what a sports car was and how to make one, and what ingredients were the right ones.

Then the blatantly inevitable happened: Despite the fact the boss of Toyota said he liked the car, especially the rear end, and despite the fact that Toyota engineers had been working on this for two years, someone in Toyota piped up and said ‘it should be more efficient.’

Next thing: delayed. The FT-86 would not be out before 2012 because they were fiddling with the engine to make it more efficient.

Well fair enough, 2011 was ambitious.

Then: Delayed again. Now it wouldn’t be out before 2013, despite the fact the car has been signed off for production.

This was followed swiftly by a rather quiet, bashful announcement that it wouldn’t be under £20k. What? One of the promises Toyota made was this would be a cheap car!

But £25-£30k is a far more realistic price for a car like this, and if it’s really as good as Toyota (and Subaru by this point) promise, then all could be forgiven.

Besides, Toyota had just promised us a tribute to their test driver, Hiromu Naruse, who was killed at the Nordschleife Nurburgring. This would be a Yaris  based, 1.5 litre engined rear wheel drive hot hatch that would come in under the FT-86, possibly as low as £10k, so think £15,000 odd and £20k for the FT-86 becomes a bit daft, move them apart slightly. Fair enough, I could accept and forgive all of that too.

Obviously this little car will change a huge amount but if this and the FT-86 arrived, maybe, just maybe all this hybrid-ness was getting Toyota’s engineers all hot for some rather special sports cars.

Then we hear the announcement I feared the most: the engine still isn’t efficient enough, we may have to consider making it a hybrid. I almost wept.

This announcement was made around the time Honda released the God-awful CR-Z hybrid ‘sports’ car, which is heavy, slow and not very good handling. Lovely little car but in no way is it even remotely sporty; a hybrid drive-train with 106bhp is not going to set anything on fire.

However I was finally given hope, by Subaru, who told everyone that they were going to produce their own version of the FT-86, which would be released after the FT-86 comes out. They said, because it uses the Impreza engine, Impreza gearbox and Impreza rear end, they could create an STI version, sticking the turbo back on, giving the engine something in the region of 260 bhp.

Rejoice! The current Impreza may lack something compared to its predecessors but Subaru were still prepared to go nuts.

They also suggested that their car may be cheaper... The £20k FT-86 was back on!

So that’s where we are. Toyota keep delaying their FT-86, with Subaru promising to wait for the Toyota to come out before they release their version, and with a good chunk of Toyota’s engineers working on the tribute to their test driver, the FT-86 was starting to look like it was being neglected slightly.

That brings us to the announcement made in the last week; Toyota’s ‘insurance policy’ for the FT-86. What they’ve said, is that with the coupe delayed until 2013, mostly due to the recession and the need to improve the engine’s efficiency, they are worried the project may not sell as well as anticipated.

In non-marketing speak, they mean that they’re taking too long and the people who expressed the interest that persuaded Toyota to produce the car may not be interested when they eventually release the car.

So, to calm the company’s accountants, they’ve decided to expand the range to include a sports saloon. It would be based on the Legacy platform, use the same engine, 6 speed manual gearbox or CVT auto that the Legacy uses and remain rear wheel drive. They also mentioned that apparently they have an option on using the 3.6 litre six cylinder Boxer engine that slots into the Subaru Outback, an off-roader based on the Legacy platform.

This sounds great, Toyota M3 anyone? I’m going to stick my neck out right here and now, in 2010 and tell you no.

I’ll now explain why. The hushed noises from Toyota a few months ago was that the Boxer four would never be as efficient as they’d like, Toyota is about clean cars and hybrids, not sports cars, which is what initially lead me to despair.

What has made me declare there won’t be an equivalent to a Toyota M3 is this: Firstly, Toyota wants to create Hybrid versions of all its cars, with the Auris now having a version of the Prius drive-train and the Yaris and Verso due to get it during the next round of respective face-lifts.

This isn’t a problem, Toyota’s hybrid system is starting to earn my respect, mainly because it is starting to become worthy of the extra cost; it is starting to return real improvements over conventional engines (and not before time too...!), no the problem with this is the convenient timing of the ‘delay’ to the FT-86 project.

Like everyone else, Subaru is working on a hybrid system for its Boxer engines, starting with the four cylinder versions that form the mainstay of the Legacy range. Can you guess when this system might be ready? Yep 2013.

Call me a conspiracy theorist if you like but look at the logic:

1.       Toyota wants to make sure that its reputation as a leader in Hybrid technology is preserved, which means getting its entire range onto some sort of hybrid drive-train.

2.       Subaru needs to produce a Hybrid system to ensure it doesn’t fall behind everyone else in that market, the demand for Hybrid cars is becoming very strong, but they want theirs to be better than a mere token gesture.

3.       Subaru and Toyota have partnered up for the FT-86 project, but it’s Subaru who stumped up the mechanicals, who are doing the testing at the Nurburgring and who are developing the car, with Toyota just stumping up the cash.

The conclusion I reached: Subaru and Toyota have done a deal; Toyota gets the FT-86 with half an Impreza underpinning it, including Boxer engines and the Hybrid gubbings for said Boxer engine so Toyota can have their Hybrid sports car and Subaru get the Hybrid technology from Toyota which carries an excellent reputation within the industry.

I don’t think the FT-86 is doomed yet, Toyota have probably put far too much into the project to simply kill it dead, but those who were hoping for a new Supra; forget it, that IS dead. I predict it’ll end up as a Hybrid sports car, and probably a decent one, with a saloon version, again it’ll be good but no M3.

That leaves Subaru the space to go nuts, create the car we first saw from Toyota and an STI version while both companies improve their standing in the Hybrid club.

Frankly if Subaru don’t get the Boxer hybrid system out on time, I think Toyota will call time on the FT-86 and put its money somewhere else.

My reasoning for this is simple; Toyota have gone back on all their promises to us so far relating to this car, is it so hard to see them just giving in and saying ‘sod it, we can’t be arsed, we prefer Hybrid’s anyway’? No it isn’t hard to see at all.

As for the Subaru version, at this moment, I hold little more hope for that as well to be honest, if Toyota pull out, I seriously doubt Subaru have the cash to buy and finish the whole project on its own.

This means, one of the most anticipated, beautiful and well designed & conceived cars of the last decade may end up a still born failure despite the fact it was to be made with two different badges and even with a saloon version banded around. Sorry people, drool while you can, you may never actually see one.