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
|