The Toyota GT86 and Subaru BRZ won plenty of fans with their balanced rear-drive chassis at launch in 2012, but besides a mid-life redesign of the budget sports coupe in New York, very little has changed in the ToyoBaru world – at least very little had changed until Toyota whipped the covers off the GT86 Shooting Brake concept.
Developed by Toyota's Australian team, the concept was hand-built in Japan. Just as Mercedes has done with its CLS and CLA, Toyota took the coupe and grafted on a sloping hatch-style rear end to free up luggage space and headroom.
Unlike some concepts, the 86 Shooting Brake is a fully functional car, and Toyota says it has been put through its paces on a test track. Although the press is yet to get behind the wheel, Toyota Global Chief Engineer Tetsuya Tada is confident the car has lost nothing in the transition from coupe to shooting brake.
"The nicely weighted and direct steering of the 86 ensures the car retains the involving drive experience of the coupe with a slightly more neutral feel in tight corners on a driver's favourite road," Tada-san said. "I would love this concept to become a production reality, it is very much a concept that demonstrates the passion within Toyota for cars that are fun to drive."
Other than the rear roofline, the car remains unchanged, which means power still comes from a 2.0-liter boxer engine punching out 149 kW (200 hp). That might not sound like much, but Aaron Turpen discovered it's more than enough to have fun with when he reviewed (now-defunct) Scion's take on the car.
There are currently no plans to put the car into production, although Tada-san said Toyota would gauge the public response to the concept. If that's the case, we're considering getting a petition going to encourage the company to do just that.
Source: Toyota Australia
