GR86 RC grade
 

A couple of pictures of the upcoming barebones Race Competition (RC) have appeared. First generation 86 RC grade sported unpainted black plastic bumpers, but this time the GR86 RC wears body-colored painted bumpers. The wheels remain 16-inch steel wheels, since owners will change them to lightweight wheels. The standard equipped oil cooler remains which means no fancy external oil cooling here. We can see an air conditioning system and a normal size battery, so the new GR86 isn’t completely stripped back to basics. There is no carpeting to be found inside the boot lid and a GR86 tailgate badge is missing (:thumbsup:). Weight savings or other mechanical differences are still unknown, but first generation car weighed around 2,623 pounds. We expect the new one to be heavier.

A few other things according to (dodgy) translated you tube videos
1. 2 speakers instead or the usual 6 or 8.
2. Less sound deadening under the passenger compartment carpets.
3. No cruise control.
4. No artificial sound generator.
5. Pvc gear knob and handbrake lever, instead of leather.

A picture from the interior. They say that specific car is a prototype, so there is no official release yet.

They should call it the 'Canadian Winter spec', most probably sell more of them!

They'd never sell it outside Japan. A lower sticker price means lower profit. It does serve its purpose, helping promote the brand by supplying cars for various racing series. Too bad they can't be shipped with wheels/tires to be returned for credit shortly after delivery. Would lower the cost further.

I am guessing the deletions might lower the sticker price from the base maybe equal to $1000-$1500, therabouts.

The Canadian version would include a bumper sticker of the Japanese symbol for rice, since most heavily modded cars I see are distasteful boy racer style. My car is monochromatic black with tints and very low key, unless you look for the intercooler. And red calipers and shift knob.

米

I wonder when Toyota/Subaru will make a 86/BRZ Cup car like they did with the first gen. The cup cars come with a roll bar preinstalled air brake air ducts.

Air brakes are a definitely a different option

I was never impressed with the cup cars for street usage. They were adding a heavy roll bar, so the weight advantage was lost and they had to cancel the curtain airbags and sun visors. I am sure they will introduce this spec again for the one-make races in Japan, but as a road car I think the 86 RC and BRZ RA grades were better.

The problem with the first generation was that somehow the price advantage didn't transfer well to the countries. For example, I could buy in Germany the BRZ RA (similar to the RC grade) with just a 2k price advantage from the fully loaded grade. However, in the RA grade you were getting 16 inch wheels, smaller brakes, no Torsen, no audio, no speakers, no interior leather, no heated seats, no cruise control, no fog lights and so on. You can imagine which grade everyone was buying. I guess factory wanted to transfer somehow the extra manufacturing cost of the additional developed parts. It looks that this time they are moving to a milder 'RC' version to avoid much of this extra cost.

I would go in this version to build mine (wheels and seats) granted that the $ difference was enough

The official weight information of the RC grade is out. Unfortunately, there is no relation with the original 86 RC and BRZ RA grades. Weight in the new generation is 1260 kg and there is no difference with next grade. In contrast the weight of the previous generation was 1190 kg and the difference with next grade was 20 kg. It was the same for both 86 and BRZ, because they were sharing same parts. It looks like that the "built by passion and not by committee" is lost somehow. :(