Car News

2017 Toyota 86 spied again… (Subaru BRZ, too, sort of)

31 Dec 2015

Isaac Bober 2

The refreshed 2017 Toyota 86 (Subaru BRZ) has been spied again, this though it’s been caught on film testing at the Nurburgring in Germany.

CAUGHT TESTING ALONGSIDE the recently released Japan-only Toyota 86 GRMN, the refreshed 2017 Toyota 86 had its front and rear wrapped in camouflage suggesting minor bodywork tweaks (the 86 features in the second half of the YouTube clip by user ‘cvdzijaen’). While there have been rumours of a turbocharged engine, this is unlikely until the next generation model comes along, and whether it will feature an electric turbocharger remains to be seen.

So, what can we expect for the refreshed 2017 Toyota 86 and/or its twin-under-the-skin, Subaru BRZ? Quite a bit, potentially. It’s been hinted by Toyota that ‘everything’ is being looked at, and that includes suspension, engine, chassis and brakes. It will be interesting to see whether Toyota and Subaru stick with, more or less, the same set-up or whether they’ll try and differentiate the vehicles more by playing with suspension settings.

Back to the Toyota 86 GRMN. This model is for Japan only and has seen around 100kg stripped out of the 86, the suspension fiddled with and a few more horses liberated from the 2.0-litre four-cylinder engine. It’s likely these changes will make their way to the mainstream refreshed Toyota 86.

There’s still uncertainty around the next-generation Toyota 86. It’s definitely going ahead, but whether it will still be a joint effort with Subaru or whether the next-gen model will be based off a Mazda MX-5 remains to be seen.

And here’s an official video of the Toyota 86GRMN testing at the Nurburgring: