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Whereas the just-launched Toyota GR86 would possibly share quite a lot of elements with its Subaru BRZ doppelganger, beneath it’s obtained a bespoke tune by Toyota’s Gazoo Racing engineering group, led by chief engineer Yasunori Suezawa.
Though Subaru really builds the brand new GR86 alongside its personal BRZ sports activities automotive, Toyota’s contribution to its new-generation model of the twins prolonged its personal growth program for the automotive by virtually a full 12 months – which matches a protracted solution to explaining why Toyota has launched the automotive greater than seven months after the BRZ hit the highway.
Importantly, it was none aside from Toyota president Akio Toyoda who requested extra tuning enhancements be made to GR86, after placing it by its paces on the likes of Fuji Raceway.
He instructed the engineering group on GR86 that extra work was wanted on the second-generation sports activities automotive to arrange it for correct observe functionality and be worthy of the GR badge.
MORE: Toyota GR 86 delayed because of BRZ similarities – report
That’s in line with Suezawa-san, who spoke with CarExpert completely at this week’s launch of the automotive at Phillip Island in Victoria.
“By way of Toyota’s contribution to supply the GR86 from the brand new BRZ construct, that interval was about one 12 months. We needed to make modifications to the dynamic efficiency of the BRZ,” he stated.
“To tune the GR86 with the extent of dynamic competencies we anticipated of the automotive, ended up as a six-month program, unbiased of the BRZ.
“As soon as Akio Toyoda put the automotive by its paces in Japan at areas together with Fuji Raceway and Hakone Skyline, he got here again to us with extra modifications he needed made to the automotive from an fanatic’s perspective, which pushed out GR’s growth window to almost twelve months.
“These engineering modifications have been threefold. First, we regarded on the suspension, particularly, springs and stabiliser bars have been modified in-line with the upper degree of dynamic efficiency Akio required of the automotive.
“Critically, we additionally enhanced throttle response and the EPS (electrical energy steering) after the suggestions from Akio Toyoda, who needed the automotive to carry out to love a real GR-engineered automotive, on highway and observe.”
Turbocharging has been a topic of debate across the Toyota 86 even earlier than it launched in 2012, when the model revealed its FT-86 Idea on the 2009 Tokyo Motor Present. It’s been an ongoing debate with house owners and fanatics alike ever since, and one that can possible proceed.
In truth, Suezawa instructed us it was additionally thought of on the outset of the event program with GR86, however as soon as once more handed over.
“We did talk about the choice of turbocharging the GR86, however selected persevering with the naturally-aspirated engine (though bigger) for 2 causes.
“Including a turbocharger to the two.4-litre four-cylinder motor would have elevated the automotive’s weight by 30 kilograms, and given the GR86 has a lightweight kerb weight of simply 1287kg within the base GT Guide, we didn’t need to add to that weight.
“Secondly, turbocharging means lag down low within the rev vary and we a lot most well-liked the linearity of the ability supply from an aspirated engine, which is why we determined to not use turbocharging once more.”
Curiously, there’s additionally no rev-matching operate for the brand new GR86, which we thought would possibly been a characteristic on the most recent era, given its {hardware} and software program is available to the Toyota’s engineering group.
“We don’t have rev-matching on the GR86, and we didn’t have it on the 86 both, however each the module and software program can be found to us”, was Suezawa’s response to our question.
The rev-matching software program is so good lately that even should you like heel-and-toe shifting (as this tester writer absolutely does), you simply find yourself reverting to auto blipping, just because it’s so good and by no means misses a beat. Which is why we’d like to see it as a supplier choice, maybe.
MORE: Toyota GR 86 delayed because of BRZ similarities – report
MORE: 2023 Toyota GR86, tight supply for 12 months, wait lists seem certain
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