The Toyota ‘86 has been with us for awhile now and it’s history has been plagued with the internet doing what it does best…ruining everything. When news first arrived of a small, affordable, RWD sports coupe by Scion/Toyota…the expectation was massive.
When the specs arrived of the 200 HP non-boosted power plant, it was meant with so much negative energy that it could have caused a wormhole to Hell. Mind you, nothing was wrong with that power plant and for a vehicle weighing only 2700 lbs, it was plenty but common sense did not reign supreme.
The FRS and it’s subsquent naming conventions was not about power. It was about purity. It was about the joy of just driving. It was about the happiness between man and machine. The mentally and spiritually cleansing experience behind the wheel on a curvy bit of road.
Relagating the previous ‘86 to anything more than that is like saying Miata has to have the same specs as a Porsche Boxster. Two completely different vehicles, with different intentions and different benchmarks.
So even before its launch the FRS, at that time, was weighed down by this never ending negativity. Nevermind that nearly everyone who drove the FRS concluded that power was not it’s defining trait…but rather it was handling and response. The internet did not relent and anytime anyone mentioned that generation ‘86…there was always someone grinning like an idiot stating that it was ‘slow’.
Now 9 years and about 3 different naming conventions later…we have an entirely new ‘86. So has the internet learned it’s lesson? Well, no.
But, the interest in it is so great that we may see a turning of the tide.
So let’s go ahead and break down this newest generation of the ‘86!