EVO First Drive Review of Toyota 86 - Calls it Brilliant!

[DuMa]

'Weight distribution is slightly rear-biased'

thats a first. i thought most ppl say its around 53/47 favoring the front.

[Mari0]

OMG I don't think it was possible for me to get more excited than I already was, but...

"Possibly the best electric steering system we've yet encountered, with much more subtle sensitivity than the new 911's system "

"It makes a Scirocco seem synthetic, an RCZ anaesthetised, a 3-series Coupé over-complicated. This is a pure driving device like an Elise."

[Ikaros]

" The auto alternative works well enough, if without quite the smappiness of a double-clutcher, but the manual is obviously the one to have."

Guess I better learn to drive a manual. I have talked to some of my friends who drives a manuals, and although they say it's fun to switch gears, they said the hills and traffic here makes driving extremely tedious. One of these reporters should seriously do a review on the automatic version, I want more info than just a sentence =.="

[Syldrin]

so when they say Altezza tranny do they mean the old IS300? or are the New IS' also called Altezza in japan? if they mean the old one does that mean that this car comes with the that bullet proof Getrag tranny that also came in the supra or am i remembering wrong and the altezza didnt have that same bullet proof 6 speed.

[Dragonitti]

Blue + Aero...in an FR-S Please.

[ryude]

Originally Posted by Ikaros

" The auto alternative works well enough, if without quite the smappiness of a double-clutcher, but the manual is obviously the one to have."

Guess I better learn to drive a manual. I have talked to some of my friends who drives a manuals, and although they say it's fun to switch gears, they said the hills and traffic here makes driving extremely tedious. One of these reporters should seriously do a review on the automatic version, I want more info than just a sentence =.="

They are reviewing this car on a racetrack, I would guess that most of the people buying this car have never been on a racetrack and probably never will be. If you just plan on having fun on your local twisty roads, you'll have fun in either one. The manual is going to give you a bigger grin, but it will also give you the most headaches for daily driving.

[Mari0]

Originally Posted by Dragonitti

Blue + Aero...in an FR-S Please.

Lol I love that wing... and I was never into big a*s wings, but it looks right at home on this car

[Ryephile]

Originally Posted by Mari0

OMG I don't think it was possible for me to get more excited than I already was, but...

"Possibly the best electric steering system we've yet encountered, with much more subtle sensitivity than the new 911's system "

"It makes a Scirocco seem synthetic, an RCZ anaesthetised, a 3-series Coupé over-complicated. This is a pure driving device like an Elise."

Fantastic news. EVO is a legit media source, so if they say the car is brilliant, everyone else had better pay attention. Putting quotes out there like that isn't trivial for them, as they don't suffer fools lightly. They're not without their bias; Chris Harris is a Porsche nut-swinger, and the whole staff is noticeably British-biased and USA-negative, but despite that I'm now rather excited to give these cars a couple test drives.

[Hachiroku]

Originally Posted by Ryephile

Fantastic news. EVO is a legit media source, so if they say the car is brilliant, everyone else had better pay attention. Putting quotes out there like that isn't trivial for them, as they don't suffer fools lightly. They're not without their bias; Chris Harris is a Porsche nut-swinger, and the whole staff is noticeably British-biased and USA-negative, but despite that I'm now rather excited to give these cars a couple test drives.

Yep, EVO's reviews are usually worth more than the average review. Hope Chris Harris reviews the car personally at some point.

[WingsofWar]

Originally Posted by DuMa

'Weight distribution is slightly rear-biased'

thats a first. i thought most ppl say its around 53/47 favoring the front.

i am not surprised, a 53/47 is honestly a perfect balance because it offers more front grip at lower speeds and heavy braking, but when you get on it...rotational weight distribution changes and it becomes more balanced.

dynamic 50/50 is a golden distribution that not many cars actually achieve. And vehicles that have 50/50 weight distribution are challenged with poor control if not remedied with a more intricate suspension geometry.

[Ryephile]

Originally Posted by Hachiroku

Yep, EVO's reviews are usually worth more than the average review. Hope Chris Harris reviews the car personally at some point.

Yes, EVO's reputation is well deserved, primarily because they aren't "bought out" like so many other media rags and have enough experience to tell the difference between pretty-good and benchmark-fantastic.

Regarding Chris Harris; I'd rather have Henry Catchpole review the car as he's more perceptive, more articulate, and less biased. Harris's perspective doesn't resonate with me.

[Dave-ROR]

Originally Posted by Spaceywilly

Wow... better steering than the new 911?

You can tell the "unbiased" Chris Harris didn't write that article easily enough

[2fast4you]

Originally Posted by syldrin

so when they say Altezza tranny do they mean the old IS300? or are the New IS' also called Altezza in japan? if they mean the old one does that mean that this car comes with the that bullet proof Getrag tranny that also came in the supra or am i remembering wrong and the altezza didnt have that same bullet proof 6 speed.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but it's the same Aisin AZ6 manual found in the IS200, MX-5, S2000, RX-8, and many other cars.

[val_lixembeau]

Originally Posted by Ikaros

[I]I have talked to some of my friends who drives a manuals, and although they say it's fun to switch gears, they said the hills and traffic here makes driving extremely tedious. One of these reporters should seriously do a review on the automatic version, I want more info than just a sentence =.="

Hmmm... Look at it this way. If we are to believe the hype, the engineers made every possible effort to heighten driver involvement and your feeling of one-ness with the car. That includes things like the excellent steering feel mentioned in this review. And fitting relatively skinny wheels/tires instead of super grippy rubber so you can feel how much traction you have left and play around with it even at lower, still legal speeds. Do you really want to pass up some of the hard work those guys did and insulate yourself with an automatic instead of feeling the clutch and gears yourself?

It's not that hard to learn to get from point A to point B using a manual transmission. After that, learning to drive better can be part of the joy of owning the car.