Toyota FT-86 redesign rumors UNTRUE! Production version rumored to be shown at Geneva
 

Also as reported on FT86club Homepage.
__________________________________________________ ____
Fri Feb 19 2010


Toyota FT-86 - what you see is what you'll get

Steve Sutcliffe / Autocar

On the site today you'll notice a story on the Toyota FT-86 Concept. Since I wrote it various rumours have been doing the rounds on the internet about the validity of the car’s design. According to these rumours “an unofficial source in Japan” has claimed that the final design hasn’t been signed off yet, the insinuation being that the car we photographed bears little true resemblance to the one that will go on sale in 2012.

I was, I admit, a bit shocked by these rumours, having recently spent a day with the car and some of the people responsible for its design. So I started to do some digging, and it now seems that the situation is a wee bit more complicated than it first appeared.

http://www.autocar.co.uk/csfiles/blo...ta%20FT-86.jpg

What I can gather, having communicated with numerous official, unofficial sources within and outside Toyota, is this. In 2012 Toyota will definitely launch a rear-wheel-drive coupe that will have an unusually low centre of gravity, and for a target price of less than £20k equivalent to today’s money. But its final production design has indeed not yet been finalised.

However, what I can also tell you is that, unofficially and very much on the QT, Akio Toyoda himself loves the current design just as it is, especially the rear end. He’s also taken particularly keen note of the enthusiastic way in which the FT-86 concept has been received by its critics. And so, basically, it would seem he wants to keep the production car’s design as close as possible to that of the concept, once various aspects have been integrated to make it production friendly; such as pedestrian crash protection etc.

In other words, and despite nothing yet being officially official or otherwise, what you see is what we’ll get.

Which is very good news if you ask me.

---------------------------

In the metal, says Sutcliffe, the charm of the FT-86 is achingly apparent. For starters, it's no more than two-thirds of the size you'd expect it to be. The Audi TT - not a big car - dwarfs it.

Beyond that, the most striking aspect of the car is how low the bonnet line is and how snugly the whole car seems to hug the ground as a result. This is because the engine is derived from Subaru's famous flat-four 2.0-litre 'boxer' unit.

Senior Toyota designer Cech estimates than the bonnet is around 100mm lower than it would be with a conventional four-cylinder engine in place, but cautions: "It won't be quite as low for the production car. Unfortunately, we have to raise it maybe 50mm to meet pedestrian crash protection legislation."

Mechanically, the car is fairly conventional. Suspension is probably wishbones at the front and almost certainly multi-link at the rear, transmission a six-speed manual and the chassis conventional rear-wheel drive.

What will make it special, claims Toyota, is the ultra-light kerb weight, which may be as low as 1250kg in production trim, its purity of response, its handling agility and the fact it will have a proper limited slip differential.

Another distinguishing feature will be its interior, and in particular its dashboard, which may even include software that provides data acquisition for a host of circuits.

Sutcliffe concludes that the FT-86 is a deadly serious attempt to take a slice of the lucrative affordable coupe market , as well as recapture and repackage the DNA that made Toyota's cars so popular in the past. "The sooner it goes into production, the better," he says.

For the full Toyota FT-86 story, buy this week's Autocar magazine, on sale now.

--------------------------

http://cdn.media.autocar.co.uk//Car/...183234x155.jpg
Q&A Jaromir Cech, Toyota FT-86 designer

19 February 2010

The Toyota FT-86 concept will be a production reality by 2012, arriving in the UK with a target price of less than £20,000 for the entry level model.

To find out more about the car, which rumours suggest will be formally confirmed for production at the upcoming Geneva motor show, Autocar sent Steve Sutcliffe to meet its designer, Jaromir Cech.

What was the design brief for the car?

The first ideas we had came after some feedback we got from the engineering people. They told us they’d been testing this car, and that it drove just like a go-kart on the track. And so we thought, ‘Well, we need to make a car that looks like it drives like a go-kart.’

So when did you first start designing it?

A little over two years ago, since when the idea has been refined, obviously, but still with those same themes at the centre: driver focus, purity of form and functional beauty.

Were there any influences apart from the original rear-drive Corolla?

The Corolla represents a lot of the FT’s basic design influence, but really there are a number of cars that we looked at, from the Supra to the original MR2.

You were primarily responsible for the interior; which bits are you most proud of, and which aspect do you think will make it into production?

I’m proud of the interior. It’s deliberately extremely driver-orientated and contains quite a few fresh ideas, especially within the modular dash design.

I’m not sure whether the zips idea for the doorbins will make it into production — it may prove too difficult to mass-produce — but I hope one day we’ll see something like it in a production Toyota because it’s a simple but also functional solution.

And like I say, that’s the key design theme for the whole car: functional beauty. That came right from the very top.


Also some new pics from the interview:

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Attachment 500


Anyone see this yet? Sigh of relief maybe? I think so.
http://jalopnik.com/5475549/toyota-f...ly-exaggerated

Also links to original Q&A with the FT-86 designer:
http://www.autocar.co.uk/News/NewsAr...llCars/247568/

^
Thanks for update

Thank ***k for that!

hmmm im trying to find where he said the redesign rumors were untrue....

Here's the Jalopnik article...

Toyota FT-86: Rumors Of My Redesign Have Been Greatly Exaggerated

http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets...86_concept.jpg

There have been some filthy rumors floating 'round the internet about a possible redesign of the almost-too-good-to-be-true Toyota FT-86. Turns out, they're completely untrue.

A two-door Toyota that's rear wheel drive, Subaru boxer-powered and actually pretty cool looking?! Unpossible! No, it's true, but the pessimists at Japanese buff book Holiday Auto ran a salacious tale of redesign claiming infighting between Toyota Europe Design Development and Toyota Technical Center's design groups and a pending redesign as a result.

Well, Jaromir Cech, senior designer at Toyota Europe Design Development, has come out and quashed those rumors. The FT-86 we know and can't wait for is in no danger of a major redesign. The only thing the car's in for is dimension-stretching to meet crash and pedestrian impact requirements. Also, a realistic interior treatment.
We're told to expect the production version of the FT-86 at Geneva. We hope so — it's a Toyota that's actually got us giddy with excitement.

:happyanim:

oh thank god!

I think it's implied in that the senior designer at ED2 is talking about his design (in a very recent interview no less) of the original FT-86 as the one and only current design of the car, as well as the one that will be tweaked for production.

I can't wait :thumbup:

Hm.. whats up with the zippers on the dash? Not really feeling the interior..

Looks like I've been moved. :P
It looks way better now anyways. Thanks(Hachiroku?)

My favourite part, comparing the FT with to gokart. I've always compared my 86 to a gokart. Not in performance obviously, but in fun. It always does exactly what I tell it to and never complains. Well, except when you ask it for some heat... it's so cold right now...

And I like the zippers. Hopefully you can get replacement dash skins. Cracked dashs are no fun!

Articel said it probably won't make it into production.

I think that's the only actual comment on it's driving characteristics so far. I LIKE IT.

no way in hell the interior will look like that for production. and yes the zippers are kind of dumb

lol.
Zippers are awesome!
http://mjjgallery.free.fr/thriller/s...beatit/011.jpg

how much is 20,000 eurodollars in us money ? and that's for the entry level ! wow.

Don't even bother with a direct conversion. It never works that way.

Oh and OMG... THANK JOE PESCI!

BUILD IT! NAO! With that steering wheel.

WOOOOT! seriously I was almost ready to go buy a Legacy GT and say fuck it! Thank you Toyota, first time you have not disappointed me (with a car, truck wise your solid)since the death of the Supra.

uk car prices are inflated way beyond what you americans will be paying.

e.g. currently the base model prius in the US is $22,800 - in GBP (currently) that is £14,750

yet the base model prius here is £19,504 which means we pay £4754 more than the americans for the car OR in USD, $7348

that means uk pays around 50% extra for our cars - by that logic you could probably be expecting to pay:
£20000 * 0.66 = £13200 or...

$20,407 USD (at current exchange rate)
probably rounded up to $22,000 or something id guess

It's nice to see that wallpaper was probably an actual photo that's been photoshopped and not just a photoshop. Anyways very excited since Geneva is only a week or so away.

They said the concept will be stretched to meet crash requirements...I hope not by too much the concept's size was one of the most appealing things to me, lol.

One of the big things they have mentioned so far is that the hood and front portion of the car is too low to meet pedestrian safety requirements. I think this is a positive thing in that the concept hood makes the side view a bit droopy up front and a higher hood could make the car look more agressive.

was anybody else smiling while reading this article and seeing the pics??

Damn..

FT86 still has the ugly rear end by the bottom near the exhaust.

lol, :P here's a bigger pic :)

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showp...5&postcount=20 :happy0180:

Smiling would be an understatement :) Beaming is more like it!

Well right now $1 is Euro .74 or 20,000 euro that $27,000+, but just like old topic canada and other country tax for cars are higher so ill say base will be $23k to $25k

wow this is great just woke up news

Man, knew it wouldnt make it to production, but the more I looked at the interior the more it grew on me, so was now hoping it would stay. I didn't really expect it to, but had hoped.

lets look at the head room from this pic the guy looks like 200lbs w/ a 6ft height, looks like FT86 wil have a good head room, well depends on the production seats if its going to be like that or more thicker may change, I just hope the production seats are lower and comfortable.

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/d...vin/ft86-1.jpg

it does look like the car will have a decent amount of head room. They also said the seats will sit very low in the car so im sure that will help.

I hope there's head room. I barely have room for me and my helmet in the tC. Being 6'3" and about 210 lbs really doesn't allow me to fit in some things.

= 2755 pounds !! sounds good enough for me.

Fri Feb 19 2010
http://www.autocar.co.uk/users/avata...98192226907658

Toyota FT-86 - what you see is what you'll get

Steve Sutcliffe / Autocar

On the site today you'll notice a story on the Toyota FT-86 Concept. Since I wrote it various rumours have been doing the rounds on the internet about the validity of the car’s design. According to these rumours “an unofficial source in Japan” has claimed that the final design hasn’t been signed off yet, the insinuation being that the car we photographed bears little true resemblance to the one that will go on sale in 2012.

I was, I admit, a bit shocked by these rumours, having recently spent a day with the car and some of the people responsible for its design. So I started to do some digging, and it now seems that the situation is a wee bit more complicated than it first appeared.

http://www.autocar.co.uk/csfiles/blo...ta%20FT-86.jpg

What I can gather, having communicated with numerous official, unofficial sources within and outside Toyota, is this. In 2012 Toyota will definitely launch a rear-wheel-drive coupe that will have an unusually low centre of gravity, and for a target price of less than £20k equivalent to today’s money. But its final production design has indeed not yet been finalised.

However, what I can also tell you is that, unofficially and very much on the QT, Akio Toyoda himself loves the current design just as it is, especially the rear end. He’s also taken particularly keen note of the enthusiastic way in which the FT-86 concept has been received by its critics. And so, basically, it would seem he wants to keep the production car’s design as close as possible to that of the concept, once various aspects have been integrated to make it production friendly; such as pedestrian crash protection etc.

In other words, and despite nothing yet being officially official or otherwise, what you see is what we’ll get.

Which is very good news if you ask me.

---------------------------

In the metal, says Sutcliffe, the charm of the FT-86 is achingly apparent. For starters, it's no more than two-thirds of the size you'd expect it to be. The Audi TT - not a big car - dwarfs it.

Beyond that, the most striking aspect of the car is how low the bonnet line is and how snugly the whole car seems to hug the ground as a result. This is because the engine is derived from Subaru's famous flat-four 2.0-litre 'boxer' unit.

Senior Toyota designer Cech estimates than the bonnet is around 100mm lower than it would be with a conventional four-cylinder engine in place, but cautions: "It won't be quite as low for the production car. Unfortunately, we have to raise it maybe 50mm to meet pedestrian crash protection legislation."

Mechanically, the car is fairly conventional. Suspension is probably wishbones at the front and almost certainly multi-link at the rear, transmission a six-speed manual and the chassis conventional rear-wheel drive.

What will make it special, claims Toyota, is the ultra-light kerb weight, which may be as low as 1250kg in production trim, its purity of response, its handling agility and the fact it will have a proper limited slip differential.

Another distinguishing feature will be its interior, and in particular its dashboard, which may even include software that provides data acquisition for a host of circuits.

Sutcliffe concludes that the FT-86 is a deadly serious attempt to take a slice of the lucrative affordable coupe market , as well as recapture and repackage the DNA that made Toyota's cars so popular in the past. "The sooner it goes into production, the better," he says.

For the full Toyota FT-86 story, buy this week's Autocar magazine, on sale now.

--------------------------

http://cdn.media.autocar.co.uk//Car/...183234x155.jpg
Q&A Jaromir Cech, Toyota FT-86 designer

19 February 2010

The Toyota FT-86 concept will be a production reality by 2012, arriving in the UK with a target price of less than £20,000 for the entry level model.

To find out more about the car, which rumours suggest will be formally confirmed for production at the upcoming Geneva motor show, Autocar sent Steve Sutcliffe to meet its designer, Jaromir Cech.

What was the design brief for the car?

The first ideas we had came after some feedback we got from the engineering people. They told us they’d been testing this car, and that it drove just like a go-kart on the track. And so we thought, ‘Well, we need to make a car that looks like it drives like a go-kart.’

So when did you first start designing it?

A little over two years ago, since when the idea has been refined, obviously, but still with those same themes at the centre: driver focus, purity of form and functional beauty.

Were there any influences apart from the original rear-drive Corolla?

The Corolla represents a lot of the FT’s basic design influence, but really there are a number of cars that we looked at, from the Supra to the original MR2.

You were primarily responsible for the interior; which bits are you most proud of, and which aspect do you think will make it into production?

I’m proud of the interior. It’s deliberately extremely driver-orientated and contains quite a few fresh ideas, especially within the modular dash design.

I’m not sure whether the zips idea for the doorbins will make it into production — it may prove too difficult to mass-produce — but I hope one day we’ll see something like it in a production Toyota because it’s a simple but also functional solution.

And like I say, that’s the key design theme for the whole car: functional beauty. That came right from the very top.

= 2755 pounds !! sounds good enough to me!

(not exactly "ultra-light"... but in this day & age of safety measures, and keeping the car fairly cheap...)

:happyanim:

2755lbs for the base model aint bad at all. Hopefully the "track" model can strip out another 100lbs.

Did anyone see this comment?
 

In the article the designer said:

The Toyota FT-86 concept will be a production reality by 2012, arriving in the UK with a target price of less than £20,000 for the entry level model.

Are they suggesting a more expensive version? Maybe turbo? We know there will be a track version that is stripped down, but little has been said about a turbo version. Just thought it was interesting that they used this phrase.:thumbsup:

if it does not come with a turbo option i'll wait for the subaru version!

they didnt mention € (euro's) they said £ (GBP - British pounds)

right now €1 is worth £0.88
http://www.xe.com/ucc/convert.cgi?Am...7&image=Submit

that would make the cost to €22,731 with a direct currency conversion

Im just answering his question he asked euro to us $ i answered his question :iono:

I dont know why i feel the subaru version will not happen? Why, i dont see any effort or even a concept being made? Dont hold me on that just a feeling