GR86 Turbo, Could Be Coming To You Real Soon.

From the day the first generation GT86 made its debut in 2012, we knew it was something special. Light, nimble and a joy to drive but we knew it could be better, the chassis could handle more. It needs a force fed powerplant that would take it to the next level. 

Well a decade later, with the latest updated offering the GR86 there are winds that a turbocharged offering might just be in the pipeline. Chief engineer Yasunori Suezawa disclosed to DRIVE that the new GR86 is built on a chassis that could accept more power. This is evident as the Super Taikyu GR86 races using the GR Yaris' 1.6-litre turbocharged power plant successfully. 

GR Yaris engine used in GR86 race car. 

Now before you get all excited, Yasunori Suezawa added that for the “potential” production models, Toyota would unfortunately not use the 1.6-litre but opt for the lighter 1.4-litre turbocharged mill to save roughly 30 kilograms. This is to stay true to the GR86’s design philosophy of being a lightweight, nimble and well balanced FR machine. 

He further added that the transmission would be also beefed up to handle the power and torque improvement. The current 2.4-litre engine produces 228HP while the GR Yaris’s 1.6-litre mill pushes out 268HP for comparison. We can expect the 1.4-litre mill to be somewhere in-between. 

The idea of going the turbocharged route was actually always in the picture according to chief engineer Tetsuya Tada, who led the GR Supra development. However, the 86’s chassis offered a decade ago was unable to accept a turbocharged power plant. 

He goes on to inform DRIVE that a whole new platform was developed in the form of GR86 instead of tinkering with the existing engine to accept turbocharging. Hence the development of the all new GR86 platform.