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Richard Hammond (Top Gear) predicts Toyota FT-86 will be massive success

Richard Hammond, one of the longtime hosts of the ever popular Top Gear program on BBC wrote about the FT-86 in his column today (full article below). The "Hamster" predicts that the Toyota FT-86 will be a massive success due to its RWD architecture, fantastic looks, and affordable price.

It seems that the FT-86 has certainly caught the interest of Hammond, as this is the second time he has written about the car in his Top Gear column. See his first column HERE.

Quote:

FT-86 coupe to revive Toyota

By Richard Hammond on March 17, 2010

You wouldn't want to have been working at Toyota for the past month - especially in quality control or public relations.

But the firm has been building reliable motors for decades, bought because they tend not to go wrong. Virtually every tourist on the planet will have travelled in a Toyota Hiace van from airport to hotel, often badly driven and falling to bits, but still going strong.

So why are all Toyotas rubbish overnight? They're not, of course.

By the time the FT-86 arrives on our shores, its current troubles will be forgotten and I predict it's going to be a massive success.

First off, it's rear-wheel drive, which means it is going to be fun to drive and will probably handle rather nicely. It'll have about 200bhp which doesn't sound much (the Ford Focus RS has 300bhp and the Megane RS 250bhp) but, because it's rear-wheel drive, you'll be able to put all the power down easily.

And it looks fantastic. It's a proper coupe and that's crucial. Coupe says that you're young and fancy-free, and that you don't need space for prams. Pretty important to get that message across even if you're 40 and have two kids. With some of the spirit of the 1980s' Toyota Corolla, specifically the AE-86 model, the FT-86 will be powered by a flat-four engine built by Subaru, which should give it an interesting character.

But the best thing is that when it arrives in late next year it will cost less than £20,000. It won't be perfect but will be a lot of fun and unlikely to have a sticking throttle pedal.

Source: http://blogs.mirror.co.uk/cars-motor...ve-toyota.html

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Ah well its nice to see someone as big as him taking such a liking to this car.

Thats good. But 20,000.00 EUR

=

27,495.68 USD

so much for that low affordable starting price...lol

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shevon (Post 12661)

Thats good. But 20,000.00 EUR

=

27,495.68 USD

so much for that low affordable starting price...lol

I always feel scary when I convert money from EUR to USD. Lol.. however it's not going to cost that much for The US buyers

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shevon (Post 12661)

Thats good. But 20,000.00 EUR

=

27,495.68 USD

so much for that low affordable starting price...lol

Doing these straight conversions from Euro or Yen to dollars is never accurate. We're lucky here in north america to pay much less for cars compared to the rest of the world, so predicting an exact US price based on an direct conversion isn't accurate.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hachiroku (Post 12664)

Yes, you're right. However Taiwanese Camry is less expensive and look more beautiful than the US Camry. There are some cases that we pay more for automobiles here in the states. In the FT-86's case, we will pay less than EU or Japan for sure.

I really like Richard. I hope one can reasonably deduce that he will be the one driving/reviewing the car when the time comes.

I just want to see them run it on the top gear test rack, I want numbers

Quote:

Originally Posted by 4agze (Post 12670)

I just want to see them run it on the top gear test rack, I want numbers

It's not going to be pretty, but yeah we always can give it a try, right? I also would love to see FT-86 in Nurburgring 24 hour endurance.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Myka (Post 12669)

I really like Richard. I hope one can reasonably deduce that he will be the one driving/reviewing the car when the time comes.

you just dont want jeremy to call it boring and captain slow to drive it well slow lol

Quote:

Originally Posted by 4agze (Post 12670)

I just want to see them run it on the top gear test rack, I want numbers

probably gonna be close to the bottom of the list, but would still be cool to compare.

Jeremy is a hater. He will put down anything that is made in Japan, not a Ferrari and will praise anything British! :laughabove:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dixie Normous (Post 12676)

you just dont want jeremy to call it boring and captain slow to drive it well slow lol

probably gonna be close to the bottom of the list, but would still be cool to compare.

Jeremy loved the RX8 so maybe he will appreciate the 86. I like Richard because of his personality and because he likes the same kind of cars I do. Like back-to-basics porsche models.:)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Myka (Post 12683)

Jeremy loved the RX8 so maybe he will appreciate the 86. I like Richard because of his personality and because he likes the same kind of cars I do. Like back-to-basics porsche models.:)

... but the RX8 is a step down from the RX7, so... was he doing his judgement based on... the body or something?
I mean.. I love those suicide doors, but the car doesn't perform as well as its predecessor.

Well, that he loved the RX8 does show he's not totally dead-set against anything japanese.. so I guess that's a good thing.

Quote:

Originally Posted by RRnold (Post 12680)

Jeremy is a hater. He will put down anything that is made in Japan, not a Ferrari and will praise anything British! :laughabove:

He liked the LFA only thing he made fun of is the price which is true, on the old segment of battle of roadsters he picked the S2000 vs BMW Z4 (richard) vs a cayman (captain slow).

he called the 370Z gearbox rev match "brilliant"

first time i seen him like a american car was the Corvette Z06, ZR1 and ford GT, he also liked the focus RS but thats not even american.

but when it comes to track testing i still like Tiff Needell from fifth gear :thumbsup: