086A To Use New Legacy Base..

The Second Coming..

With rumors of cancellations and postponements abound for the new Toyota/Subaru sports car, new rumors have sprung up showing that Toyota are still in fact keeping to plan and not letting the global financial crisis get in the way of development.

New Legacy Base

With the green light on for a new coupe to follow in the footsteps of the “AE86”, it has been learned that the base of the car has been finalized and will come from the new Legacy that is to be released in May. The only differences will be a slightly shorter wheelbase but that the car will retain and incorporate the new Subaru’s front strut suspension and rear multilink setup. Development codes, at least for the Japanese model, have been also been decided. The previously mentioned ‘086A’ will be given to the Japanese Domestic Market model with possible ‘slight’ changes earmarked for other markets, including North America and Europe.

Engine Developments

Taking another page out of the Subaru book, the base engine has been confirmed as the naturally aspirated 2.0 liter EJ20 but will be improved upon over previous efforts using a direct injection fuel system. Members in charge of the project have been aiming for a 1/l 100ps power ratio out of the 4 cylinder boxer engine with a total output of 200ps at 7200rpm and 20.0kg of torque at 4000rpm respectively. Whilst the car may sound more and more like a Subaru project, final (exterior) design of the machine will be apparently left up to Toyota to decide. The car will be available from both Toyota and Subaru with each car carrying its respective badge, but will be distinguish by slight different styling cues inside and out. It was also rumored that at the current pace of development, a camouflaged test car may actually be ready to hit the Nürburgring by late April this year.

Price change

Whilst Toyota has been adamant of a price range of around two million yen for the car it appears that figure will go up, to between two and two and a half million yen, due mainly to the development and tweaking of the boxer engine. With the current financial crisis crippling other manufacturers though how far Toyota is willing to stick to its guns and ride out the tough times we don’t know. What we do know is that with a bit of luck the car will be introduced as a new line, filling in a long standing gap as an affordable sports for younger generations, but still brilliant enough to entice older enthusiasts enchanted by the original Levin/Trueno to go out and get one. For now though we’ll just have to wait and see as the release date is still pinned for 2012.

Words: Peter Horniak
Image: Best Car