Tuned GT 86s - The Good, The Mental

When the day finally came for journalists to get their grubby mits on that perfectly formed steering wheel and to mash the hot peddle, they were slightly underwhelmed by it all.

OK, to quibble about power is to miss the point of the GT 86, and a jaded journalist used to a charging stable of horsepower at the hint of a throttle stab probably isn't the best 'real world' judge. Even our very own Adnan complained that overtaking wasn't as easy as it should be.

If you want to see Toyota's ideals versus a journalist's power hunger, watch the video below where a grumpy hack bemoans the lack of grunt, only for Deon Joubert (part time racing driver, part time hobo) to have the time of his life out on track.

http://youtu.be/j_BFKXf3Ir8

But the whole power argument was kind of irrelevant to Toyota. It was always its intention to create a modern day AE86, a car that's become synonymous with tuning and drifting cultures. Tetsuya Tada, the project's Chief Engineer, told The Truth About Cars that they wanted "to create a car that is easy for people to tune and to play with."

But it wasn't just journalists who craved more power. Our modern obsession with big numbers meant there was no doubt that owners simply couldn't resist having a fiddle.

Toyota Racing Development (kinda like Toyota's version of AMG) was one of the first out of the gate with official modifications. The exterior mods are just stick on parts to make the 86 look more aggressive, while performance parts mostly work on the stability and handling of the car; it seems Toyota wants to leave the engine to the boys outside the company. Boys such as those at Gazoo Racing who, although holding close ties to Toyota, clearly fell into the '200hp-just-isn't-enough' category.

The catchily named GRMN Sports FR Concept is Gazoo's twin charged effort to appease the gods of power. Yes that means a turbocharger AND a supercharger, working together to create 316bhp. In case you were wondering GRMN stands for Gazoo Racing Meister of the Nurburgring. I think they're trying to say they're masters of the 'Ring...

But be in no doubt, although this is just a concept, the aggressive bodykit is also accompanied by uprated brakes and a quad exhaust. All this means that the GRMN is longer, wider, lower and heavier than the standard car. Poor Tada must be weeping.

http://youtu.be/aBdFiFOWGms

As I'm sure you know, the FT-86 project was a joint effort between Toyota and Subaru, with the latter releasing the near-as-damnit identical BRZ. One of the best known aftermarket Toyobaru/Subieyota motors is from Accelerated Performance, who recently smashed their own 1/4 mile record as you can see above.

It's pretty much a bolt on turbo kit, a few uprated engine components and an AP exhaust to boost the power to 440WHP. Due to the way dynos work you can't get a particularly accurate conversion to BHP but vague calculations put it in the 'feckin' fast' region. Fast enough, in fact, to wind up the owner of a McLaren MP4-12C at a track day to the point that he recklessly dived up the inside, clipping the BRZ and wrecking his exotic beast.

http://youtu.be/j7oNKQ6OKBo

Obviously, it's not just road going Hachiroku's that are getting fiddled with. The GT 86 was built primarily with racing and drifting in mind, so it's no surprise to see highly modified motors in racing series around the globe. The video above shows a number of modded race cars that push out around 650bhp! The easily tuned GT 86 resulted in people getting creative. In the D1GP series in Japan, Orido Manabu has chucked a Lexus IS-F V8 under the hood of his 86, producing more than 400bhp. The problem is we're talking racing, so things don't always go to plan.

To say goodbye, here's Manabu getting things very wrong in his V8-powered GT 86. The cameraman definitely needed a change of underwear after this one.

http://youtu.be/uQMymbwaDHU