Chris Harris on the Toyota 86

Chris Harris has just filed a review on the Toyota 86 over at PistonHeads. There was no promise of an extensive drive, just a thrash around the flat Jarama track in Spain. But the hype around the car meant a few laps was still worth the trip.

Here’s a few snippets and we recommend you take the time to follow the link below and read the full article:

…when you ask Tada-san, the engineering boss in charge of the project the usual, turgid, Nurburgring lap-time question, he just shrugs and smiles. He doesn’t care: “This doesn’t matter.”

In the scheme of a mass-market, rear-driven coupe which panders to the lusts of people like us, it seems like a frivolous observation, but to me it is a powerful metaphor for the direction in which this new product takes fun motoring: the GT 86 is about driving and the driver; not about numbers and performance.

It’s in the faster turns that the GT 86’s chassis balance brings the first big grins… Turn in and the nose pushes just a fraction wide, but it really is a tiny shift because you then feel the weight move back through the bodyshell… Not in some gratuitous drift, but that you—the driver—have as much control over the positioning of the car with your right foot as with the steering wheel.

Sounds very promising.

[Source: PistonHeads]