Toyota GR86 Review | Back to basics

The new Lamborghini Revuelto has over 1,000bhp from its 6.5-litre. It may be the baby BMW M car, but the new M2 still weighs in at 1.7 tonnes, more than that. Lotus has announced its Eletre SUV will weigh over 2.5 tonnes. The Model S Plaid can hit 0-60mph in less than 2 seconds. For £273, you've got a choice of nine amazing advice and a real voice in my head. Sometimes you have to say that enough is enough. Too much power, too much weight, too much cost. The things that, when you put them in a car, the result is often technically impressive, but emotionally dead. And that's because, as we know, the best things in life are often the simplest. Take this Toyota GR86, for example. It's got a naturally aspirated engine in the front, it's got a six-speed manual gearbox in the middle, and all of its power is sent to the wheels at the back. Simple. There was a time when this was the standard blueprint for performance cars, thanks to the sharp throttle response, affordable packaging and ideal weight distribution. For many, it's still the perfect recipe, yet so few manufacturers now choose to use it. And for the ones that do, the price tag and kerb weight is often vastly inflated. And frankly, who can blame them for tweaking the formula? This car's predecessor, the GT86, was sold in the UK at a very reasonable price for about nine years. And did it fly off the shelves? No, not really. It's only now that people realise that cars like this are about to become extinct that the very limited build slots of the GR86 fill up in 90 minutes flat. Before the additional batch of build slots arrived in summer 2023, second-hand versions were going for £35,000 upwards, and while that's a hefty premium, it doesn't change the fact that there's no obvious alternative to the GR86 and what it offers. This is a car that does things differently, starting with the engine. On paper, the 2.3-litre four-cylinder Subaru Boxer engine might look underwhelming, but instead it's a perfect example of how much power you actually need in a sports car. At 231bhp, it's up by 34bhp against its GT86 predecessor. Yet there's never a sense that you're a slip of the right foot away from landing triple figures on the dash. It ain't slow, however. This is very different to the GT86, where unless you were in exactly the right gear at exactly the right time, you could very easily get dropped by a turbo-diesel van. I know this from personal experience. Bruised egos aside, the GT and GR86 have never been about how they stack up to other cars, and they're best enjoyed on quiet, empty roads where you can fall back into your own little bubble. Slung low and straight-legged, your backside catches the cat's eyes as the car carves from one apex to the next, while the thin-rimmed, smoother silk wheel bristles with every bump, crack and cattle grid that your favourite B-road has to offer. Fourth, third, second, the GR86 focuses your every input and gently punishes small errors with a jolt or shudder, enough to mentally chastise your mistake and promise yourself you'll do better, but never so much as to scare or frighten an over-eager pilot. That's the great thing about cars that are light, relatively inexpensive and not bursting with power. There's not the same sense of dread in the back of my mind in case things go pear-shaped, and I'm not scanning the road ahead nervously looking for bumps or potholes that could rip off a 5k splitter, and I know for a fact that I can enjoy all of third gear without worrying about the boys in blue. Sometimes, it pays to go under the radar. That's certainly the case with the GR86's cabin. Forget your hyperscreen or passenger information display, it's about as back-to-basics as you'll find in a car sold in 2023. And as a result, some of the switches and buttons are, well, downright cheap, seemingly dredged up from the very bottom of Toyota's parts catalogue. And while I'm on the subject of being critical, the rear seats are tiny, the boot is bijou and the levels of road and wind noise are high even for a performance car. Don't think for a second that this is the silver bullet when it comes to everyday sports cars. There's a reason that heavier, more expensive rivals have stood the test of time. You don't just like the idea of a car like this. You have to really, really want it. You know, this thing reminds me of the phrase, you can't drive a house, but you can live in a car. This is compromised, but you know that time, money and resources have all gone on making it as fun as possible. That was the priority. Over the GT86, body rigidity is up by 50%. The centre of gravity is lowered by 1.6mm and sent 0.05% further to the rear of the car. What's more, the ride height has been dropped by 10mm, the driver sits 5mm lower, the overall weight is down by 10kg and the wheelbase has been stretched by 5mm. These are noticeable changes and they wouldn't have been cheap to develop. Toyota could have left the handling and chassis the same as it was on the GT86 and they could have spent more money on the cabin. And as tacky as some of this is, I'm really rather pleased they didn't. It's tighter and faster than its predecessor yet there's still a brilliant balance between speed, capability and fun. And because they put a proper set of tyres on it this time, the dips to oversteer feel way more natural than they did before. Brake, change down, turn in, squeeze the gas and wait for the rear to bite down and send you towards the red line. Rinse and repeat as you want because the more you learn of this car, the more you get out of it. Hot hatches, estates and even some SUVs will go faster, but none will put you front and centre of the process quite like the GR86. In a field filled with firepower, its light still shines bright and defines the joy of a simple sports car better than pretty much any other. There'll always be room for wild multi-million pound supercars but sometimes it pays to just go back to basics because if there ever was an antidote to the idea that driving can't be fun anymore, then this thing is it. Oh yeah!