Toyobaru FT-86 Comes Into Focus

Sometimes I imagine the entire Toyota Corporation is a single, evil person. I want to grab them by the lapel, and shake them violently while screaming "You're the biggest car brand in the world!  You can engineer ANYTHING! When the technology to lay carbon fibre in a cylinder for the A-pillar of your supercar didn't exist, you INVENTED it!  Stop building more boring hybrids, and make a car that car people want and can afford!"  It seems like I'm not the only person that feels that way, because Toyota is trying to convince us it's got the point by teasing us repeatedly with FT-86 Toyobaru this, RWD that, and so far nothing has come of it.

My, what a big diffuser you have.

A lot of people were expecting Toyota to debut the long-awaited "FT-86" production car at Geneva, but it looks like there's been more foot dragging in Toyota City as they're using Geneva to introduce the FT-86 II: another concept car, which looks mostly the same as the last one, but is "closer to production."  Look, stop dithering, build the car Toyota!  Just do it now!  Not in 2014, not for $30,000, not with any hybrid low-emissions tree-hugging mumbo jumbo, not with a CVT and fragrantly scented interior panels and backup sensors!

Nice wheels! I doubt a non-turbo Subaru 2.0L needs brakes that big, though.

Ok, getting off my soapbox/high horse for a minute, this blacked-out FT-86 is technically the third FT-86 concept in perhaps the cruelest teaser game ever conducted on car guys, after the original and the TRD concepts.  This one is closer to the production model than the original concept is, but it still isn't the real deal.  Although truth be told, it's closer to production than it's Subaru counterpart, which is also being shown at the Geneva show in concept form.  Make that loose concept form.

Yeah, not done yet.

Yeah.  Toyota's press release was pretty light on technical details, only saying that the concept is powered by a 2.0L naturally aspirated "boxer" (horizontally opposed) engine mated to a six speed manual driving the rear wheels.  They did give specifications for the dimensions: 2.57m wheelbase, 4.24m overall length, 1.8m width and 1.27m height means the FT-86 is a relatively compact coupe.  I'm interested to see what it weighs, but nothing about that yet.

Lord Vader, your Hachi-Roku has arrived.

The rest of the press release goes on about all the awesome cars Toyota made in the past... stopping with the MkIV Supra Turbo, which went out of production in 1998.  Which says a lot about what, exactly, the company has been doing since then when it comes to fun to drive cars.  I want to make fun of Toyota for taking 18 eternities to put a simple n/a RWD coupe into production, but in all honesty they're probably starting from the beginning, having forgotten what "fun" means.  I have high hopes for the FT-86, let's hope Toyota delivers on them.  The production model (both Subaru, which judging from the chassis concept will offer optional AWD, as well as the Toyota) are due out in 2012.

Photos Courtesy Jeremy Korzeniewski/AOL via Autoblog.