Four-Mile Toyota GR86 Has A 2JZ Engine Under The Hood

The Toyota GR86 sold out in minutes when it was released earlier this year, and most of us would love to get our hands on one. However, this GR86’s owner decided that the Japanese sports car’s original four-cylinder boxer engine wasn’t quite up to scratch and, after just four miles of driving, swapped it out in favour of an old-school 2JZ-GE unit – a bold but impressive move.

The 2JZ-powered GR86 has been built by photographer and YouTuber Larry Chen, and while the engine swap may seem controversial to some, any 2JZ swap gets a thumbs up from us. We probably would have enjoyed the GR86’s stock power unit on some twisty roads before jumping to an engine swap, though.

The car’s new powerplant is a 3.0-litre 2JZ-GE engine sourced from a Lexus IS 300, but it’s quite clearly had some work done, as it now produces around 500bhp. All that power is sent to the car’s rear wheels through a Toyota W series manual gearbox from a MkIV Supra.

See also: Toyota Will Honour Warranty In GR86 Track Day Engine Failure Controversy

From the factory, the GR86 uses a 2.4-litre naturally aspirated four-pot boxer engine, which sends a claimed 232bhp to the rear wheels through a manual transmission. It provides quite a bit more go than the 2.0-litre unit in its GT86 predecessor, but it seems that wasn’t quite enough of an increase for Chen.

This could well be the first 2JZ-swapped GR86 in the world, but we’re almost certain that it won’t be the last.

Next up, check out Toyota Has Built A Few GR Yaris-Engined GR86s - Should We Be Excited?