It's still a week before the unveiling of Toyota's much-anticipated FT-86 concept, and guess what just turned up at the Nurburgring in Germany? The FT-86 test mule. It seems Toyota's R&D team could not wait to get the mule on the road for some shakedown laps. And that's okay by us.
But don't expect to see that sharp-looking, bright-red coupe set for a Tokyo reveal lapping the 'Ring. As expected, the Toyota-Subaru jointly developed prototype is a rather ugly hodgepodge of metal and camouflage tape, all stuck together to hide what's going on underneath.
And from what our man on the ground in Germany had to say, the signs are very promising. "It looked quick, and sounded good. The burble coming from those twin exhausts sounds kind of like an older Impreza, you know, beefy," said our contact, who wishes to remain anonymous.
According to another source close to Toyota, the rear-drive mule is sitting on a Legacy platform with a Legacy front strut and rear double wishbone suspension setup. It also employs a naturally aspirated, Impreza 2.0-liter boxer engine good for around 200 horsepower that's mated to an Aisin six-speed manual transmission.
While a next-generation version of Subaru's EJ20 horizontally opposed boxer engine will be fitted, the head is all Toyota, employing the company's D4-S unit, and the rear differential is lifted from the Lexus IS. The body you see here might be well camouflaged, but it appears to be a Legacy front and rear section welded together around the C-pillar, another Nurburgring sight reminding us of the very awkward looking Honda NSX test mule that employed a stretched S2000 platform and body around three years ago.
Apart from testing the engine and gearbox combination, Toyota engineers will be focusing on getting the suspension settings just right, especially given the fact that the 4WD Legacy's strut and double-wishbone setup has had to be heavily modified to cater to the new coupe's rear-drive bias.