Why I’ve Bought A Toyota GT86

If you’re a regular reader of Car Throttle, you may remember that around about a year ago, I ran a Toyota GR86 for a few months. If you’re not, welcome, and let me direct you to my farewell piece to that car.

In that, I signed off by saying the reason I didn’t buy a GR86 immediately after handing it back was, frankly, because I couldn’t afford one. My final line on the story of that car was “For now, if you need me, there’s a GT86 somewhere calling me.”

A year later, I’ve found it. This is now my Toyota GT86. Here’s why I bought it.

A teenage dream…

For a long, long time, the Toyota GT86 has been an obtainable dream car of mine. Even before any of us knew what the GT86 really was.

Back in 2009, Toyota announced it would be collaborating with Subaru on a new sports car and introduced the world to the FT-86 concept. At that time, I was 13 years old. My dad had just recently sold his Subaru Impreza Turbo to buy a Ford Galaxy. I was obsessed with that car (the Impreza, not the Galaxy), my life was now devoid of cool vehicles, and I was naive to how crazy the prices of JDM treats would rocket by the time I was old enough to buy any of my own.

I remember reading about that car in Top Gear Magazine and being pretty excited at the prospect of my generation’s version of the Nissan S-chassis cars – a small, lightweight, manual, rear-driven and probably affordable coupe. I only became more obsessed with it when it arrived in Gran Turismo 5 a year later.

That morphed into the FT-86 II in 2011, and I’d morphed into an acne-crippled 15-year-old trying to figure out what to do with my life. Knowing that whatever that path may be, I’d hope it could fund the road-going version of that concept.

So when the GT86 came in 2012, watching my personal heroes Jeremy Clarkson and Chris Harris’ reviews religiously, I knew that someday I needed one to call my own. I’m not even exaggerating – before writing this, I found a Tweet I wrote on 26 July 2013: “One day, whenever that may be, I will have either a GT86 or BRZ.”

…and one that never really went away

My first encounter behind the wheel of either car came early in 2018, about nine or 10 months into my career as a motoring journalist. We had the facelift Subaru BRZ in for review, and I’d wangled the keys for the weekend to tickle a fancy.

Admittedly, worried I’d built up this hype in my head for a car I knew was going to feel slower than I thought from my then-limited experience driving, and perhaps a little nervous of a dream being shattered. That former point rang true, but the latter did not.

Its playful chassis felt like everything I’d read about, the little shimmy it did on the rear axle over undulations in the road. That sense the car wanted to break traction at every given moment, even at 20mph. I never got within the car’s limits, largely fearful of going beyond my own at just 22 without much time in rear-driven cars, but I knew it was something special.

Another go came with the updated GT86 later that year, although cruelly cut short by a drunk driver obliviously pulling out of their parking space one sunny morning. It wouldn’t be until the GR86 launch in 2021 that I got another taste of that boxer-powered formula, but the want to have one of my own never went away, and only grew after spending three months with the Gazoo.

Really, it’s only taken me so long because I never quite had the means to buy a good one. But now, approaching 30 and with an existential crisis ever looming, I do. And now was the time.

So why this one?

Which leads me to NX62 YXE, a 2012 Toyota GT86. I’m its third owner, with it having covered just shy of 46,000 miles when I picked it up around a month before you’re reading this. By this point, add a decent chunk more to that.

It’s almost perfect. I always loved the orange launch colour for the 86, but red is simply my favourite. It was specced with the more subdued all-black steering wheel, although I did have to compromise going without the mostly red heated seats – the standard ones instead fitted here. 

I will also be trawling eBay for the OEM red shift knob as a long-term replacement for the Blitz shifter I’ve just put in to replace the knackered original one, so my DMs are open if you happen to be selling one.

Aside from the odd light scratch here and there (forgiveable given it’s a 13-year-old car), the bodywork and paintwork are immaculate. Oh, and its previous owner had just fit a fresh set of OEM-spec Michelin Primacy tyres before selling it.

What's next for the GT86?

Now, I know what most people will be saying. “Have it turbo/supercharged”, “Fit some coils”, “Get proper tyres on”, etc., but for now, I won’t be doing any of those things.

Maybe it won’t take too long for me to change my mind on that, and if you’re a company interested in supplying me with any of those things, let me know…

For now, though, stock it remains (Barring the Kenwood head unit that eBay made obscenely easy for me to get all the bits to make it the easiest car DIY I’ll ever do). That’s partly because it feels like too nice an example to do anything serious immediately. 

Mostly though, because I want to experience, at least for a while, what that stock GT86 I spent so long lusting after feels like to own. Not every teenager would’ve dreamt of a Toyota, but this one did – and now I’m delighted to have made it come true.