TOYOTA - SUBARU Development "Team 86" summary...
 

A question brought up in Club4AG forums, I will share here on FT86Club as I thought it was interesting to describe to everyone who have one thought or another about WHo did what in the collaborative prodess of Subaru and Toyota.

Quote:

originally posted by Panda_AE86 »

Yes, FHI is now 27% owned by Toyota, on paper...one can only imagine what is actual since they are both, complex multi-structured corporations, with many subsidiaries and even shared interest ownerships of various suppliers and sub-divisions.

As for the collaboration, it was Mr.Tada, under guidance of President A. Toyoda of Toyota, who was assigned to gather a special design task force from both Subaru and Toyota in a singular think tank.
Originally a singular Toyota concept, it was later assigned to use resources of Subaru which has had production facilities available, and to utilize the spare capacities of the Subaru plants, parts suppliers, etc. Collaborations also involve teams from Toyota Europe, Aisin, various tire makes, and Denso as well as dozens of others.
Subaru engineers and execs were at first very skeptical about the concept, and were reluctant to develop a 2wd car with no AWD option, nor an NA based flat four.
But after spending several months talking and playing with a RWD concept mule car, sharing seat time in cars, drivers and passengers, Subaru and Toyota engineers sitting side by side, they firmly committed.

By the time full development started, they were very cohesive with everyone, and the team worked in unison to the end to follow the goals and guidelines set in the initial concept focus.
These are the men and women who are called the TEAM 86, chosen to not be either Toyota or Subaru, but a singular entity who were simply at the task of using resources available in either, and crating something closest fitting to the goal of making the FT86 siblings.

Key developers on the "TEAM 86" project:
T. Tada - chief engineer Toyota
F. Ito - Product Planning 86 Project Subaru
A. Takada - Product Planning/Marketing Division, Toyota
T. Furukawa - Exterior Design, Toyota Design Group
K. Kido - Exterior Design/Toyota Creative Studio
T. Noda - Body/Product Management - Subaru
M.Toyama - Group Manager, Design Toyota
Y. Hayashi - Interior Design, Toyota Design Group
H. Kishi - Engine Management Systems R&D 86 Project Subaru
T. Okamoto - New Engine Development - Toyota Advanced Engine Design
M. Otani - Engine Development Toyota
K. Watanabe - Engine Development - Toyota
K. Nakamura - Product Management - Engine Group Toyota
T. Ishikawa - Manual Transmission Development Aisin AI
T. Kaino - Manual Transmission Development
H. Tomomatsu - 6 sp Automatic Development, Toyota
M. Takagi - Advanced Testing Driver - Toyota
Y. Sasaki - Chassis Development
A. Osaka - Chief Driving Test Engineer
H. Kishi - Aftermarket Product Planning Division, Sport Vehicle Management
K. Okino - Aftermarket Product Division, Toyota

And many more working under thier guideance, and contributing from both ends of the firms involved, and outside 3rd party aftermarket, suppliers, producers, and outfitters as well as testing facilities, racing teams, benchmarking firms, and research task-forces especially setup under TEAM 86.

So in actuality, the only SUBARU-TOYOTA battle is merely in the minds of the uninformed fan-base, customers, and loyal egos of the folks who covet the badge more than the car?
Because internally, it is ONE and focused only to bring you the best compact sports car for the money, deeply thought out and catering sharply to driving enthusiasts of deep appreciation in vehicle dynamics.

That is what TEAM 86 is about.

And FRS/BRZ, GT86, and Toyota 86 are all siblings made of the same bloodline.
I can elaborate for days on this, but I will stop here to let you visualize from this, what this looked like on the inside. :D
http://www.driftpro.net/zf/images/smile/emsmile.gif http://www.driftpro.net/zf/images/smile/emsmile.gif http://www.driftpro.net/zf/images/smile/emthup.gif http://www.driftpro.net/zf/images/smile/emthup.gif http://www.club4ag.com/zf/images/smile/embeer.gif http://www.club4ag.com/zf/images/smile/embeer.gif http://www.club4ag.com/zf/images/smile/emwink.gif http://www.club4ag.com/zf/images/smile/emwink.gif http://www.club4ag.com/zf/images/smile/emwink.gif http://www.club4ag.com/zf/images/smile/emwink.gif http://www.club4ag.com/zf/images/smile/emsmilep.gif http://www.club4ag.com/zf/images/smile/emsmilep.gif

Yep. :thumbsup:

I just wish I was part of Team 86. It's my lifelong goal to be a part of a new sports car design even though I'm not really in that field now. :(

Of course, some separation of vehicle image, target ads, and marketing tactics may differ depending on the brand it is sold as. However this is in my view, an excellent way in which the same package can be attractive to many buyers from all walks of life, and to sustain a large market-base in which a product like this must cover to sustain both profitability and volume, but also for the enthusiasts to have a healthy volume of cars not only now, but well into second and third ownership and beyond, as a classic sports car that we can enjoy for our lifetime.

I'm a noodle shop owner, who kept a passion for cars, and lived and ate cars as much as noodles, shared all I can, my life and blood with everyone who came across my life about cars. I had a big group of folks all interested in sharing fun things about cars at Club4AG and events I've partaken in, created, consulted, operated, and marketed.

One day, a man named Mr.Tada called me in the fall of 2007. And everything was history. If only for few brief but deeply memorable meetings in the few years and countless emails...
I too, am a tiny bit of the TEAM86.

And as for all of you who I may have come across, shook hands, or wrote somewhere on the net, what we wrote...
All influences me, and others who spoke to Team 86 in one way or another.

And THAT makes most of YOU, the TEAM 86 as well.

That is how Mr.Tada feels, and how I see it too.

That's really cool! Ever since I was little my heroes were product designers like Yuji Naka (creator of Sonic the Hedgehog). I would probably get faint talking to someone like Tada-san. But even though I constantly design things in my spare time, and I feel confident in that ability, it is nothing more than a hobby and life has not led me down that career path. I currently own a computer services company but I am hoping to find an opportunity to design some real products in the future. To me, making a wonderful product is more exciting than making a child! :lol:

Awesome post as always Moto-P. Thank you for everything you have done (and are still doing) for the car community :bow:

Mari0 hit the nail on the head. Moto-P does so much for this forum and the community in general. Moto-P deserves a special signature or member name or something :thumbsup:

Thank you for sharing such wondering insight into the passion that makes up this car and the community that surrounds it.

Great post thank you for greater insight on the development. I'm so fascinated with this car as a whole and since I'm a designer by trade know more of its cool.caption and creation just helps me fall in love just that little bit more. :thumbsup:

That is really cool to know. I was never aware of just how much of a joint project this was! Now I can stop spewing "Subaru engineered the car, Toyota styled the car" nonsense and simply say that the car was designed by both manufacturers with equal enthusiasm, and is a lovechild of two great Japanese carmakers.

Thank you Moto-P! Mind if I ask why these guys don't belong to any of the two companies?

I would think the chassis was developed by Subaru while the test driving was done by Toyota. No idea about the aftermarket planning though.

I'd like to buy each and everyone of these folks a Beer or at least a canned coffee from a vending machine!

That's a really amazing story. It was things like this that got me into the automotive field to begin with. Although I somehow I ended up on the German side of things, I hope one day I can do something like this.

I still think Subaru gets under credited