This could be the best fun you can have in a new car for 25k.
Mention a new Toyota and excitement probably isn’t the thing that most immediately comes to mind. Reliability, yes. Environmental innovation, sure. Taxi ranks outside provincial train stations, probably.
So what is the Japanese supermarque doing producing what could be one of the best value and most purely enjoyable sports cars of the year? Historically, they do have form in the budget sports car arena - previously bringing you the MR2, the Supra, the Celica and (steady that pulse) the Corolla GT - but in recent years, the company has mostly been a touch preoccupied developing some market-leading hybrid green technology. Or something.
On paper, the Toyota GT 86 is not a car that will win you many games of Top Trumps (horsepower is just 197, 0–60mph in 7secs), and the four-cylinder engine will not throb impressively for passers-by. It’s tiny, too, weighing in at just over one tonne.
What it does do, however, is put a smile on your face, from the moment you see its unmistakably Japanese design ethos (curves + sharp angles + indents = good) in the flesh, through to the moment you sit/crouch down in the bucket seats to the first time you feel its rear wheels slide you round a corner.
The company’s idea is to put the driving experience before the trend for bigger and better stats. It’s hard to think of a car quite like it, and it’s not often you can say that. All for £25,000. Now, where’s that deserted car park? toyota.co.uk
