**A Joy to Drive: The Toyota 86 Review**

I have had the pleasure of getting my hands on the new Toyota 86, and I must say, it's a thrill ride from start to finish. With its low center of gravity and direct power steering system, this car is a joy to drive on the track. I've spent countless hours behind the wheel, pushing the limits of what this car can do, and I'm excited to share my thoughts with you.

The 86's performance is impressive, with a very responsive balance shifter that makes shifting gears a breeze. The rev matching feature is also a highlight, allowing for smooth and seamless gear changes. The pedal placement is spot on, making it easy to heel-toe threshold braking, which is essential for cornering at high speeds. I've found that the clutch is nice and easy, providing just enough torque at idle to roll the car out of neutral with no gas.

One of the things that really impresses me about the 86 is its handling. The chassis is well-balanced, making it a delight to drive on twisty roads or the track. The low center of gravity allows for precise steering and control, making it easy to flick the car around corners. I've been able to corner at almost the same pace as a Boxster, thanks to the 86's impressive grip levels.

The brakes are also noteworthy, providing effective stopping power even with the stock pads. While some may find the automatic programming a bit lacking, the paddle shifters are responsive and easy to use. One thing that would make the car even better is the addition of knee pads – I experienced a bruise on my knee after several laps, and I think this feature would be a nice touch.

Despite not being equipped with some features, such as turbocharging, which would have taken it to the next level, the 86 still feels like a high-quality item that has been well thought out for its intended task. In fact, if you want a more affordable entry point into the world of rear-wheel drive driving, I'd highly recommend opting for the base model and working your way up.

The interior of the car is also spacious enough to accommodate me at 6'3" with ease, although I did find that the steering wheel could be extended by another inch. The air conditioning was a welcome feature on hot days like today, and I appreciated the careful placement of the pedals, which allowed for smooth heel-toe braking.

Overall, my experience with the Toyota 86 has been nothing short of enjoyable. It's a car that's designed to put a smile on your face, and it succeeds in doing so. If you're looking for a fun and rewarding driving experience without breaking the bank, I'd highly recommend giving this car a try.

**On the Track**

I took the 86 out for one more lap around Monticello, and I was blown away by its performance. The balance shifter made shifting gears a breeze, and the rev matching feature allowed me to corner at incredibly high speeds. The brakes were effective, holding up well even on the stock pads.

One of the things that really impressed me was how quickly the car could rotate around corners. It's like it had a mind of its own, responding instantly to steering input. I found myself laughing out loud as I pushed the limits of what this car could do – it's a thrill ride from start to finish.

As I said earlier, the cornering speeds are impressive, even on these tires. While they might not be as sticky as some other high-performance tires, the 86 still manages to corner at incredibly high speeds. The low center of gravity and direct power steering system make all the difference, allowing for precise control and a sense of weight transfer that's hard to find in other cars.

Overall, my experience with the Toyota 86 has been nothing short of fantastic. It's a car that's designed to put a smile on your face, and it succeeds in doing so. If you're looking for a fun and rewarding driving experience without breaking the bank, I'd highly recommend giving this car a try.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enuh the new gr86 what an exciting product uh for enthusiasts um it is or it was uh toyotas to ruin it was a great car the last generation car is a great car for learning for canyon driving for urban driving and for the track um and the new one it's all about did can they improve it without ruining it right can they not overdo it and the things that need to be good right very low center gravity rev-happy naturally aspirated engine that might take well to mods a slick gearbox whether we're talking about the manual or the automatic um and a really balanced lightweight chassis so how did they do the chassis lightest version of this car base manual 2 811 pounds heaviest version version premium automatic 2868 pounds so it's only about 40 pounds heavier than the old car that's brilliant 5347 front rear distribution that is very good up front uh all versions of the 86 get a 2.4 liter boxer engine making 228 horsepower at 7000 rpm and 184 pound-feet at 3700 rpm the thing to think about 3700 rpm that's 3000 rpm lower than the last generation car for the peak torque that means peak torque is now below the dip the dip still exists but we'll talk about that in a minute um you've got like i said base and premium the base gets cloth seats 17-inch wheels with the primacy tires that's the similar low grip tires from what they had before and then the premium version 18-inch wheels uh michelin pilot sport 4 tires and they also the premium also gets a wing uh it gets heated uh leather and all cantara seats blind spot monitoring aluminum sport pedals and a better stereo all versions come in manual or automatic six-speed gearboxes chassis has been strengthened okay they've retuned the suspension there's a completely new power steering system that took the two parts to the power steering and brought them together so it's now one part okay uh the center of gravity is 1.6 millimeters lower than even before and they've done that by going with an aluminum roof fenders and hood and they've moved a whole bunch of stuff lower in the car the example they gave us is actually the license plate bracket they moved even that lower to get that that center of gravity down um 0 to 60 6.1 seconds for the manual 6.6 for the auto that's almost a full second faster to 60 for the manual manual's got a new clutch auto's got a new torque converter both have a torso limited slip differential the manual has a redesigned shifter mechanism for better diagonal shifter movements and the automatic um kind of the same except for the new torque converter i drove them all and i'll tell you about that a suspension mcpherson strut front multi-link rear the front has a new rebound spring the rear has a stiffer rear subframe and there's a new cross bracing in the back the car does have an active sound control meaning there's a dedicated speaker in the dash that complements the sound um i don't know if i love or hate that but we'll see out on the track the car does sound very good the brakes are 11.6 inch front 11.4 inch rear with a new pad compound that is supposedly more effective for high temperature driving the gauge cluster is now completely digital and depending on what mode i put the car in it changes so from regular to track it becomes the track gauge cluster and it's got integrated shift lights you can also remote start it with a remote connect app it comes with a one-year complimentary nasa membership so you can do track days and there's a lot of gr branded performance accessories um prices have not yet been announced but they start at under thirty thousand dollars for the base including destination now let's head on the track and uh and see what's what in track mode the gauge cluster zero to four thousand is like this four to seven is like this so it helps you on track really uh precisely save attack where you want it okay shifter slick i didn't mention this but i'm driving my favorite combination for this car which is the base model stick the premium you get stickier tires and some other things i don't really care about i'd want to keep the price down but mostly i want movement to me the 86 is about learning car control low grip low power low grip using counter steer feeling the front and rear move and learning how to adjust it accordingly so there's see look at that little break on the entry and rotation is hey everyone today's video is brought to you by our friends at vredestine tire and their new ultra high performance all season the hyper track you may not have heard of red stein tire before but they have been making tires successfully in europe for over a hundred years and they know about a few different things they know about high performance they know about bad weather driving and they know about driving in heat and cold because the bottom line is this most high performance tires work well on sunny clear warm days but what about if it starts to rain what about if it gets cold what if you get a dusting of snow in your high performance car can you get out of that safely the hyper track is rated to up to 186 miles an hour but also has the tread blocking and compounds that allows you to drive in adverse conditions better than so many other ultra high performance summer tires when i drove this car on the highway in the rain i was really impressed with the stability and the grip in on and off ramps and when matt and i did our video review of this car the comments were lit up by people from europe saying how much they like these tires how popular they were and how well they work for all of them hit the link in the video description and jump over to tirerack.com and check out the hyper track as well as the full line of redistended tires and thanks to reddistein for sponsoring today's video the power 228 horsepower it feels nice it feels like it's really a balanced amount of power for this car we're running all three chicanes on the back straight because you know some some people don't have the familiarity with the track that i have so it's okay low speed quick steering love it that new gearbox our new uh power steering system is very direct but what's really really impressive to me is with the low center of gravity how you can just flick it and it will move laterally while rolling very very little very cool brakes are effective even with the stock pads the brakes are effective boom boom i probably could have gone to second there love the balance shifter feel really nice really nice not quite civic type r nice but really nice rev matching super easy pedal placement super easy and even with a little bit of looseness it's still very easy still very manageable easy to shift it quick off camber you can just you just flick it and flickable and with these primacy tires you can just slide around all day don't get me wrong the the 4s tires are good there's nothing wrong with wanting more grip there's nothing wrong with wanting all cantara seats but the beauty of this car is found in its simplicity and in the looseness of the base model that's where the joy is now for logistical reasons that don't matter to you i have to do a stop-and-go penalty in the pits as opposed to just running a flyer but that will be okay and we will con we will continue when they uh release me back out so on the interior uh plenty of room i'm six foot three i can fit in here with a helmet uncomfortably in fact i'm gonna lean my seat up just a little bit although i wish the steering wheel came to me like another inch i'm all the way back with the seat here and that's fine no one's getting behind me i'm okay but um one more inch of steering wheel to me would be fabulous clutch is nice and easy not a ton of clutch feel but enough torque at idle that you can roll this thing out of uh out of neutral with no gas at all and still get the car going so that's good back out on the track one more lap i mean this car straight up is a joy it is a joy to drive the car i mean this is it's light low tight really really balanced really flickable they might have got a little more power out of it with a turbo but not having the turbo yes the balance oh yes god it was so good balancing it between the throttle and the steering there it was fabulous tight get down a little loose a little adjustment very good it's really fun really fun it feels very tight too it's not flexy the chassis is good and i'm even driving with the air conditioning on right now because it's hot i really like the placing placement of the pedals allows me to heel toe while threshold breaking really really nicely we're going to go to second here through the chicane trail break it down oh goodness there's the diff spinning up see that's what i like when you hit that bump it spins up the diff stay right blind over crest flat oh yes now here's the thing guys it ain't slow it's not slow even on these tires the cornering speeds are decent on the michelin 4 tires the cornering speeds are really really high you can probably corner at almost the same pace as a boxster so with this power bump and with this unbelievable level of grip to low center of gravity the cornering speeds are just fabulous the brakes are really holding up too the hardware is good the brake feel is very good look at that just the lift there brings that back end right around most of this track is third gear come on get down the 86 folks look this car was already great it needed a few little things to be incredible but also it was toyotas to mess up or subaru they could have made some different decisions that made it not great except the collective decisions that were made made it great gripes the automatic programming's not that great although the paddle shifters are pretty good they're pretty responsive for torque converter they also don't have the stupid knee pads they need i thought at first maybe we didn't need the knee pads but having now done laps on the track we need the knee pads to be here them not being here is a problem my knee already actually has a bruise on it um and then besides that this feels like a high quality item that has been really well thought out for its intended task um and in my opinion save your money get the base model work your way up if you want but or just leave it alone and just slide around all day it is a it is a joy so thank you to toyota for having me out to monticello what a fabulous new car you guys are going to love this thing uh thanks to you for watching i'll see you later and remember always fight your tickets use code tst 10 on the off the record app available in the android and ios store or go to offtherecord.com tstuh the new gr86 what an exciting product uh for enthusiasts um it is or it was uh toyotas to ruin it was a great car the last generation car is a great car for learning for canyon driving for urban driving and for the track um and the new one it's all about did can they improve it without ruining it right can they not overdo it and the things that need to be good right very low center gravity rev-happy naturally aspirated engine that might take well to mods a slick gearbox whether we're talking about the manual or the automatic um and a really balanced lightweight chassis so how did they do the chassis lightest version of this car base manual 2 811 pounds heaviest version version premium automatic 2868 pounds so it's only about 40 pounds heavier than the old car that's brilliant 5347 front rear distribution that is very good up front uh all versions of the 86 get a 2.4 liter boxer engine making 228 horsepower at 7000 rpm and 184 pound-feet at 3700 rpm the thing to think about 3700 rpm that's 3000 rpm lower than the last generation car for the peak torque that means peak torque is now below the dip the dip still exists but we'll talk about that in a minute um you've got like i said base and premium the base gets cloth seats 17-inch wheels with the primacy tires that's the similar low grip tires from what they had before and then the premium version 18-inch wheels uh michelin pilot sport 4 tires and they also the premium also gets a wing uh it gets heated uh leather and all cantara seats blind spot monitoring aluminum sport pedals and a better stereo all versions come in manual or automatic six-speed gearboxes chassis has been strengthened okay they've retuned the suspension there's a completely new power steering system that took the two parts to the power steering and brought them together so it's now one part okay uh the center of gravity is 1.6 millimeters lower than even before and they've done that by going with an aluminum roof fenders and hood and they've moved a whole bunch of stuff lower in the car the example they gave us is actually the license plate bracket they moved even that lower to get that that center of gravity down um 0 to 60 6.1 seconds for the manual 6.6 for the auto that's almost a full second faster to 60 for the manual manual's got a new clutch auto's got a new torque converter both have a torso limited slip differential the manual has a redesigned shifter mechanism for better diagonal shifter movements and the automatic um kind of the same except for the new torque converter i drove them all and i'll tell you about that a suspension mcpherson strut front multi-link rear the front has a new rebound spring the rear has a stiffer rear subframe and there's a new cross bracing in the back the car does have an active sound control meaning there's a dedicated speaker in the dash that complements the sound um i don't know if i love or hate that but we'll see out on the track the car does sound very good the brakes are 11.6 inch front 11.4 inch rear with a new pad compound that is supposedly more effective for high temperature driving the gauge cluster is now completely digital and depending on what mode i put the car in it changes so from regular to track it becomes the track gauge cluster and it's got integrated shift lights you can also remote start it with a remote connect app it comes with a one-year complimentary nasa membership so you can do track days and there's a lot of gr branded performance accessories um prices have not yet been announced but they start at under thirty thousand dollars for the base including destination now let's head on the track and uh and see what's what in track mode the gauge cluster zero to four thousand is like this four to seven is like this so it helps you on track really uh precisely save attack where you want it okay shifter slick i didn't mention this but i'm driving my favorite combination for this car which is the base model stick the premium you get stickier tires and some other things i don't really care about i'd want to keep the price down but mostly i want movement to me the 86 is about learning car control low grip low power low grip using counter steer feeling the front and rear move and learning how to adjust it accordingly so there's see look at that little break on the entry and rotation is hey everyone today's video is brought to you by our friends at vredestine tire and their new ultra high performance all season the hyper track you may not have heard of red stein tire before but they have been making tires successfully in europe for over a hundred years and they know about a few different things they know about high performance they know about bad weather driving and they know about driving in heat and cold because the bottom line is this most high performance tires work well on sunny clear warm days but what about if it starts to rain what about if it gets cold what if you get a dusting of snow in your high performance car can you get out of that safely the hyper track is rated to up to 186 miles an hour but also has the tread blocking and compounds that allows you to drive in adverse conditions better than so many other ultra high performance summer tires when i drove this car on the highway in the rain i was really impressed with the stability and the grip in on and off ramps and when matt and i did our video review of this car the comments were lit up by people from europe saying how much they like these tires how popular they were and how well they work for all of them hit the link in the video description and jump over to tirerack.com and check out the hyper track as well as the full line of redistended tires and thanks to reddistein for sponsoring today's video the power 228 horsepower it feels nice it feels like it's really a balanced amount of power for this car we're running all three chicanes on the back straight because you know some some people don't have the familiarity with the track that i have so it's okay low speed quick steering love it that new gearbox our new uh power steering system is very direct but what's really really impressive to me is with the low center of gravity how you can just flick it and it will move laterally while rolling very very little very cool brakes are effective even with the stock pads the brakes are effective boom boom i probably could have gone to second there love the balance shifter feel really nice really nice not quite civic type r nice but really nice rev matching super easy pedal placement super easy and even with a little bit of looseness it's still very easy still very manageable easy to shift it quick off camber you can just you just flick it and flickable and with these primacy tires you can just slide around all day don't get me wrong the the 4s tires are good there's nothing wrong with wanting more grip there's nothing wrong with wanting all cantara seats but the beauty of this car is found in its simplicity and in the looseness of the base model that's where the joy is now for logistical reasons that don't matter to you i have to do a stop-and-go penalty in the pits as opposed to just running a flyer but that will be okay and we will con we will continue when they uh release me back out so on the interior uh plenty of room i'm six foot three i can fit in here with a helmet uncomfortably in fact i'm gonna lean my seat up just a little bit although i wish the steering wheel came to me like another inch i'm all the way back with the seat here and that's fine no one's getting behind me i'm okay but um one more inch of steering wheel to me would be fabulous clutch is nice and easy not a ton of clutch feel but enough torque at idle that you can roll this thing out of uh out of neutral with no gas at all and still get the car going so that's good back out on the track one more lap i mean this car straight up is a joy it is a joy to drive the car i mean this is it's light low tight really really balanced really flickable they might have got a little more power out of it with a turbo but not having the turbo yes the balance oh yes god it was so good balancing it between the throttle and the steering there it was fabulous tight get down a little loose a little adjustment very good it's really fun really fun it feels very tight too it's not flexy the chassis is good and i'm even driving with the air conditioning on right now because it's hot i really like the placing placement of the pedals allows me to heel toe while threshold breaking really really nicely we're going to go to second here through the chicane trail break it down oh goodness there's the diff spinning up see that's what i like when you hit that bump it spins up the diff stay right blind over crest flat oh yes now here's the thing guys it ain't slow it's not slow even on these tires the cornering speeds are decent on the michelin 4 tires the cornering speeds are really really high you can probably corner at almost the same pace as a boxster so with this power bump and with this unbelievable level of grip to low center of gravity the cornering speeds are just fabulous the brakes are really holding up too the hardware is good the brake feel is very good look at that just the lift there brings that back end right around most of this track is third gear come on get down the 86 folks look this car was already great it needed a few little things to be incredible but also it was toyotas to mess up or subaru they could have made some different decisions that made it not great except the collective decisions that were made made it great gripes the automatic programming's not that great although the paddle shifters are pretty good they're pretty responsive for torque converter they also don't have the stupid knee pads they need i thought at first maybe we didn't need the knee pads but having now done laps on the track we need the knee pads to be here them not being here is a problem my knee already actually has a bruise on it um and then besides that this feels like a high quality item that has been really well thought out for its intended task um and in my opinion save your money get the base model work your way up if you want but or just leave it alone and just slide around all day it is a it is a joy so thank you to toyota for having me out to monticello what a fabulous new car you guys are going to love this thing uh thanks to you for watching i'll see you later and remember always fight your tickets use code tst 10 on the off the record app available in the android and ios store or go to offtherecord.com tst\n"