Just as soon as the Toyota FT-86 was born and came to this world at the Tokyo Motor show, it’s bigger, badder twin brother is about to hit the stage.
It’s well known that Subaru and Toyota have been in the same bed developing the FT-86 but one question that remains on everyone’s lips is, how, if they are developing the same car, can the two be different? Well it’s emerged that Subaru has been busy waving their wand over the 086A and is going to bring some very Subaru style magic to the table.
The biggest news to come out of all this is that rumors of the car being turbo and all wheel drive are now in fact confirmed. However staff close to the Subaru development side of the project have revealed is that the first thing to differ will be the codes which the cars will be known by. While the version of the FT-86 to go on sale in Japan will be known by the code 086A, and in the US and Europe as the 087A and 088A respectively, the Subaru version will be branded as the 216A. This is to “clearly distinguish between the Toyota and Subaru version of the car”. Things get juicier from there though, with the confirmation of what many have been suspecting all along. The car will be driven by a 2,0-litre turbo charged powerplant feeding power to all four wheels. This will either come in the ‘flavour’ of a revised, lower power but more efficient version of the 195 kW, 343 N.m engine from the Impreza 2.0 WRX, or the current powerplant found in the Impreza WRX STi that pushes out 221 kW and 407 N.m of torque. Our guess is the latter may well be used for an STi version later on.
Body wise, the the Subaru version will be bigger and badder but at the same time tipping the scales to the tune of around 100 kg more than the 086A. This seems to be a reasonable weight gain seeing that the dimensions have been increased in the region of 20 mm all around. Total height and width will go from 1260 mm to 1280 mm and from 1760 mm to 1780 mm respectively. Wheelbase and total lengths have also been extended, with overall length reaching 4180 mm and the wheelbase growing by 30 mm to 2600 mm in total. This is almost spot on to the current Impreza’s 2620 mm so the possibility of them sharing parts or being very similar is undoubtedly high.
So what is the final distinguishing factor between the two? Well, that will be the price. The increased performance, all wheel drive and bigger body will be adding around half a million yen to the tag bringing the car to around 3 million yen come 2011. This is not only to cover the extras over the Toyota but also to distinguish itself from the FT-86 version.
