Will there ever be a more powerful GT86/BRZ?
Discussion
It's something people, or at least forum users have been asking for since it's launch. It's always been odd that they haven't done something, 6 cylinder boxer engine or a supercharger/turbocharged variant of the 4 cylinder engine. Especially as such an engine already exists for zero additional R&D work, currently found in the STI Impreza.
But they haven't.
And now there is this:
Which personally I think looks awesome. But I suspect Toyota will not want a GT86 to get too close to it.
The Supra seems to be priced quite high at £52k vs the £28k for the GT86. But wiki suggest the existence of a 2.0 litre Supra as well as the 3.0 litre one.
And I just can't see Toyota wanting to up the power on the GT86 and offer an entry model Supra. They would offer too similar performance.
So is this a done deal on the hopes of a more powerful factory GT86?
Well what about Subaru.....?
They won't be selling the Supra. So far Subaru and Toyota have kept their respective models almost identical. And in the UK at least even restricted colour choice, so until recently you couldn't get a blue GT86 nor a red/orange BRZ. I assume this is down to some commercial and contractual commitment.
But do we think we will see some divergence of the BRZ and GT86?
The current £27k BRZ and maybe a 250-280hp one for say £33k would be quite appealing I'm sure.
But they haven't.
And now there is this:
Which personally I think looks awesome. But I suspect Toyota will not want a GT86 to get too close to it.
The Supra seems to be priced quite high at £52k vs the £28k for the GT86. But wiki suggest the existence of a 2.0 litre Supra as well as the 3.0 litre one.
And I just can't see Toyota wanting to up the power on the GT86 and offer an entry model Supra. They would offer too similar performance.
So is this a done deal on the hopes of a more powerful factory GT86?
Well what about Subaru.....?
They won't be selling the Supra. So far Subaru and Toyota have kept their respective models almost identical. And in the UK at least even restricted colour choice, so until recently you couldn't get a blue GT86 nor a red/orange BRZ. I assume this is down to some commercial and contractual commitment.
But do we think we will see some divergence of the BRZ and GT86?
The current £27k BRZ and maybe a 250-280hp one for say £33k would be quite appealing I'm sure.
I think the first point is that the GT86 is in the autumn of its years, at seven years old (having launched in early 2012). The first and second generations of the Boxster, Audi TT and MX-5 were all replaced by the age of eight, for example, so normally we might anticipate next year being the last year of GT86/BRZ production. It's not unknown for cars to be on the market for 10 years (so up to 2022), but it's rare to see a model continue much longer than that.
Further, sports cars usually sell best in their first full year on sale, with sharply declining annual sales in each subsequent year - so even if the GT86 is in year 7 of 10, it's probably already exhausted a lot more than 70% of its total sales potential.
Furthermore, it probably wouldn't be simple to fit a larger or turbocharged engine, with emissions compliance, crash safety etc requirements, so it would take a fair amount of investment. Overall I really don't think that the business case of a large investment with small sales would stack up. If they wanted to do it, 2015-ish would have been the time to do so.
Incidentally, it's not only Wikipedia talking about the four-cylinder Supra, PH covered the announcement here https://www.pistonheads.com/news/ph-japanesecars/f... - including GT86 speculation.
See also http://japanesenostalgiccar.com/news-there-will-be...
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