Tag: Toybaru

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Subaru

Subaru Australia introduces offline BRZ sales option

Subaru BRZ

Subaru Australia has kicked off the new year by allowing consumers to officially buy a BRZ sportscar from their local bricks and mortar dealership.

Until 1 January 2014 BRZ sales had been handled exclusively online, mainly due to limited supply from Japan. Nick Senior, Managing Director, Subaru Australia, explains that’s now a thing of the past, although the option to buy online will remain.

“Production efficiencies at Fuji Heavy Industries, the maker of Subaru cars, have presented this opportunity to expand BRZ sales into our retail network,” Senior said. “It’s great for our customers, because they have the choice of buying online at a driveaway price, or using the more traditional dealer method.”

A total of 1800 BRZs have already been sold by Subaru Australia.

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Toyota

VIDEO: How to build a Toyota 86

Toyota 86

Toyota has produced this slick video showing its 86 sportscar come to life. It’s been online for a bit over a month and deserves more views than it currently has, so we’re doing our bit to help out the little Toybaru.

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Toyota

Toyota goes cold on 86 Convertible

Toyota FT-86 Open Concept

Word is Toyota has shelved plans to put the FT-86 Open Concept into production. Officially, Toyota hasn’t put a comment on record, but reports suggest we won’t be seeing a chopped 86 anytime soon.

Supposedly Toyota’s product plans for 2014 and 2015 have no slot for the topless Toybaru. Although due to the fact engineering work on the production model had progressed since the concept was first shown in March it shouldn’t take too much for Toyota to get things back on track if they decide officially wreck the back to basics sports car.

[Source: What Car]

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Subaru Video

VIDEO: Subaru BRZ by Crawford Performance

Subaru BRZ by Crawford Performance

Crawford Performance in the US has worked its magic on the Subaru BRZee. They’re the guys who prepped Ken Block’s Gymkhana I & II WRXs. After they finished laughing at the meagre stock figures produced by the blue Toybaru they put things right to the tune of 430hp/500ft-lb (320kW/680Nm). Nice.

Matt Farah from Drive went along and sampled the car to see what it was like. We’d like to have learnt a lot more about the details of the engine rebuild and perhaps some decent performance stats as well. But overall if you like the BRZ, you’ll enjoy this clip.

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News Subaru Toyota

Subaru BRZ/Toyota 86 named Wheels COTY

Subaru BRZ

The Subaru BRZ/Toyota 86 twins have been awarded the Wheels Car of the Year award. It joins a host of other awards collected by the Toybaru, including the Carsguide top honour.

Wheels editor Stephen Corby acknowledged the success of the Subaru–Toyota partnership, “Seldom do joint projects produce something remarkable like this.”

The magazine went on to describe some of the key attributes for the winning pair: “Never before has pure driving pleasure been so accessible. Affordable, remarkably rewarding to drive, efficient and safe, the collaboration between Toyota and Subaru left the competition behind and drove—with just a dab of oppo—onto the Wheels COTY podium.”

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Toyota

Toyota 86 claims best driver’s car gong

Toyota 86

We expect the Toybaru will claim plenty of awards from the world’s motoring press. Indeed, we reckon you can already lock in an 86/BRZ shared award for Australia’s most prestigious gong, the Wheels Car of the Year. For now though, the Toyota 86 has just been judged as Britain’s Best Driver’s Car by the influential Autocar magazine:

Instead of being too fast for the roads on which it finds itself, its lowered limits mean that they can be approached at sensible speeds. Instead of tearing through consumables, it is the only car here for whose tyres we didn’t fear, even though it spent the most time sideways. The GT86 has altered the sports car genre. It is the performance car made relevant again; it is the new supercar. And, as such, it is arguably the worthiest winner Britain’s Best Driver’s Car has had.

[Source: Autocar]

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Subaru

Subaru developing BRZ Turbo

Subaru BRZ

Word on the street says Subaru is developing a high-powered turbo BRZ. Good news for all those Toybaru fans out there wanting moar powaaaah!

According to Automotive News, Subaru’s 2.0 litre boxer engine will be good for 280hp (208kW) after having its twin scroll blow dryer bolted on. Torque should go from a miserly 200Nm to beyond 330Nm. Now we’re talking!

It’s expected Subaru will ditch the DI/port-injection developed by Toyota in favour of their own in-house direct injection.

The report states the BRZ Turbo could arrive as a 2014 model, which given the US market’s propensity to make everything seem a year earlier than reality, could even mean we’ll be seeing the Toybaru that everyone has always wanted as soon as next year.

Bring it on!

[Source: Automotive News]

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Nissan Porsche Toyota Video

Chris Harris, the Toyota GT86 and friends

Toyota GT86 v Nissan 370Z v Porsche Cayman S

Chris Harris is back this week to entertain us with the it car of the moment, the Toyota 86. He’s taken a bit of an armchair critic’s position, in that he’s attempting to answer some of the questions asked by motoring forums the world over.

Questions like, is the Toyota too under powered, or why don’t you spend a bit more and get a 370Z, or even a used Cayman S?

It’s worth noting that, for once, we Australians are not the butt of a pricing joke. In relative terms, it’s an extra AU$5–7K to pick up a new 86 in the UK. Although, that’s offset by the fact you can buy a decent used Cayman S for under AU$25K.

To be expected, Harris is in his element here and we think he sums up the Toybaru quite well when he states: “we need to get back to a stage where we’re enjoying performance because of its nature, not because of its quantity.”

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Subaru

Subaru BRZ photo gallery

Subaru BRZ

As Australia readies itself for the official launch of the Subaru BRZ we thought we’d raid Subaru’s media portals for pictorial content and see what we could come up with. The result is a gallery of some 70 images, all available as wallpaper-friendly 2000px super images.

There’s details from all angles and also a suite of photos showing all seven colours: WR Blue Mica (exclusive to Subaru), Galaxy Blue Silica, Lightning Red, Crystal Black Silica, Dark Gray Metallic, Sterling Silver Metallic and Satin White Pearl.

If you’re keen on buying yourself a BRZ when tomorrow’s online sales commence, we hope these pictures are of some assistance to you!

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Subaru

Subaru BRZ – Australian pricing & specs

Subaru BRZ

Subaru Australia has ended the speculation and gone early with full pricing and specification details for its BRZ sport coupé. There is a lot of information provided too, and rather than try and summarise it here for you we’re going to let you rip right into it yourself.

Before we do, as we revealed on Wednesday, the BRZ will be offered in one base specifcation and is priced as follows:

  • BRZ 6-speed manual – $37,150
  • BRZ 6-speed auto – $39,730

Those prices are described as “National Driveaway”, see below for further explanation. For that you get your hands on one of the world’s most sought after coupés and three years of servicing included.

One thing is clear, the BRZ is priced well against the Toyota 86, which is offered locally in two model specifications. Let the Toybaru battle begin!

Due to limited availability for the remainder of this year, the BRZ will be available for sale online only (with exception to those who have already paid deposits, we expect). You’ll need to point your web browsers to the Subaru website on Monday 16 July at 12 noon to join the queue.

We’ll have more regarding the online sales later, for now get ready to read more about the BRZ than you could ever hope to imagine!

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Toyota

VIDEO: The definitive Toyota 86 review

Toyota GT 86 review by Nino Karotta

Nino Karotta, you may not know the name, but after watching his review of the Toyota 86 we reckon you’ll remember it. Actually, we got a glimpse of Karotta’s talents last year when he reviewed the new BMW M5.

This time the review is in English, and for a guy who does not have English as his native tongue, Karotta has a wonderful ability to describe what’s happening behind the wheel.

Then there’s the review itself. It has all the ingredients you could want, starting in Spain and taking in a highly desirable trans-European route on some of the continent’s most scenic and inspiring roads, before finally arriving Nino’s home in Hungary. At which point we are treated to some very tasty track action. There’s a great soundtrack throughout as well, which has been just as expertly edited as the pictures.

We’re not going to call this the best car review we’ve ever seen, but we can’t imagine you’ll watch a finer review of the Toybaru than this. Enjoy!

[Thanks to Phil for the tip]

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Toyota

Toyota 86 GTS gives you wings

Toyota 86 GTS with aero package

We’re not quite sure if you can make it out, but on the back of that Toyota 86 GTS, if you look very closely, is a rear wing. It’s part of a new factory aero package offered by Toyota dealers, available from today, the official sales launch of the 86 in Australia.

Toyota is asking $3000 for the kit, which also includes a revised front spoiler and side skirts. It’s fancy, too, using words like “dual canards” and “airflow evacuation”. For some reason these add-ons can only be fitted to the high-spec GTS model.

Despite the addition of that, let’s face it, MASSIVE REAR WING, Toyota claim the full aero package reduces drag and increases downforce. Well it would want to do the latter, that’s for sure.

We’re sure there’ll be a lot of 86 fans who think this aero package is the business. But we’re not really sure what else to say.

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