Driven: 2012 Toyota GT86
Company executives through the ages have all possessed the almighty skill of making ordinarily exciting news sound mundane and clinical. This is less of a sweeping statement and more of a simple fact of life. Imagine my surprise then when, in front of a room full of journalists on the Barcelona launch of Toyota's new flagship sports coupé, the Chief Engineer of the GT86 project - Mr Tetsuya Tada - dropped the F Bomb. Nope, not a profanity or dirty utterance but simply one word; fun. And here's why he's on the money. Sports coupé design has recently culminated in such cars as the Audi R8, Peugeot RCZ and Volkswagen Scirocco, all of which in my eyes are beautiful due to their many curves and lines, and also due to their subtle ferocity. With the GT86, first impressions are slightly jaded by the fairly non-jaw-dropping aesthetics. Sure the car has running LED lights and a rear wing but it's all subtle. Our test vehicle had a dark grey metallic finish specification which was slightly more difficult to photograph but glistened under the Mediterranean sun, however even with 17-inch dark accent aluminium wheels, it failed to draw much of a reaction from Catalan pavement-passers. But dig a little deeper and you'll begin


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