2023 Toyota GR86 GTS review: 1000km in the everyday sportscar

Jan 24, 2024

It's now more grown up, more powerful, more differentiated from the Subaru BRZ (or so Toyota says) and a hell of a lot more money.

We’ve driven the new GR86 on track in both automatic and manual guises, as well as briefly on the road, but this is the first time the revamped sportscar has been subjected to the nitty gritty of Australia's road network, clocking up 1013km in a week of testing across all sorts of surfaces.

This should deliver a nice contrast to the Subaru BRZ that Wheels editor Andy Enright ran for a few months in 2022.

Let's start at the beginning, the pick-up. I’d seen GR86s and Subaru BRZs on the road, but hadn't yet stopped to drink in all the changes made to the new car. It's clearly a similar glasshouse, but the second-gen car is tauter and meaner.

The way the pronounced sills trace up and fold under the body accentuates the GR86's stance. The rear arches have swollen to accommodate a 10mm wider rear track, its LED headlights look angrier and the gaping black grille is ready to ingest as much air as the 174kW 2.4-litre boxer engine can take.

Apollo Blue isn't a colour I would’ve chosen without seeing it in the flesh, but this little smurf looks hot on the road.

The 2023 Toyota GR86's cabin greets you with a much-updated technology package including a handsome digital driver's display featuring ‘track’ mode, and an 8.0-inch infotainment touchscreen with wired Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, as well as DAB+ digital radio, but no native navigation.

Unashamedly Subaru is the software used on those screens. In fact, there are a lot of Subaru bits in here that seem even more obvious than the first-gen car. The indicator stalks, the climate controls, the shifter feel and the awkward, vague light clutch (more on that later) are all very Subaru.

This variant tested is the up-spec GTS grade, differentiated by anthracite 18-inch alloy wheels, adaptive LED headlights, two-tone ‘Ultrasuede’ upholstery, red stitching, and vanity mirrors, priced at $45,390 before on-road costs.

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Although the basic GT saves you a little money ($2150), has nice cloth upholstery and the same technology package, it rides on dowdier 17-inch alloy wheels wrapped in Michelin Primacy rubber, not the GTS's secure Pilot Sport 4 rubber.

Toyota has missed the mark on pricing a little bit, we reckon. That a manual costs the same as an auto, yet doesn't get what some consider minimum safety technology in 2022 – forward auto emergency braking, for example – hurts when Subaru offers a handsome $3800 discount for the self-shifting transmission.

Other performance vehicles offer more features and practicality for a similar price, notably the Hyundai i30 N ($50,200) and dearly departed Ford Focus ST ($48,490) – both before on-road costs – but neither of those are bespoke two-seaters. And to be fair to the GR86, it gets newer technology than the similarly-priced Mazda MX-5 GT SP ($47,320) and similar features to the $74,990 Nissan Z. Again, both before on-road costs.

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The GR86's cabin gave a strong first impression with soft materials and refreshed look, but within minutes of setting off some things began to irk me. For a start, the driving position. This is probably an unpopular opinion, but measuring 188cm tall I found myself outside the GR86's ‘goldilocks’ zone.

Headroom wasn't an issue, but the seat could do with being set to 10-20mm lower and the steering column could do with another half-inch of telescoping to really dial in my spot. The seats, too, lacked under-thigh support and adequate tilt for my legs.

That said, this is still a much, much better car for lanky people than the cramped Mazda MX-5, and these are little nitpicks of what otherwise offers ergonomic excellence.

The suedecloth door tops and binnacle cover carry over from the old facelifted 86. The dash is topped with squishy rubber, and there's now a leatherette flip-up cover over the cup holders that works as a (reasonably) comfortable armrest.

Cabin storage is also vastly superior to what you might expect from a sports coupe. The door cubbies grip a one-litre camping bottle snugly, and the two cup holders are generous. There still isn't a great place for a phone, and only two USB-A ports and a 12-volt socket for charging, but it is very liveable.

The back seats remain usable for short trips, which is one of the great things about the GR86. Not long after picking it up, I gave two others a lift home from football. The back seat passenger wasn't able to sit behind me, but a comfy-enough compromise was reached behind the front passenger. It can be done.

Although the GR86's boot may only be rated at 237L, with the seats folded dead flat there's room for two full-size suitcases and carry-on luggage… or four spare wheels for a track day. You also don't have the BRZ's awkward full-sized spare floating around in the back.

Unfortunately, in making the GR86's chassis stiffer, the boot aperture is now tighter so I wasn't able to fit my road bike in. A shame when you could in the last car.

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I think I’ll put up with compromised bike carrying, though, because the new GR86 is a sharper machine right from the off. It feels stiff and sturdy with that centre of gravity right down at your coccyx.

It's refreshing to get in a modern car with properly good steering. The GR86's electrically-assisted steering rack retains an uncorrupted feel and a quick ratio of 2.5 turns from lock to lock.

This joy of good steering is evident everywhere, not just on a country road. But I can't get on with the GR86's clutch at low speeds; it's light, springy and has a high bite point – a classic Subaru trait that sits out of sorts with the otherwise matched control weights.

In fact, I stalled the GR86 while on the phone to content director Jez Spinks… at which point he threatened to fire me. And I'm still not sure whether that was a joke.

The shifter requires a fair amount of force to get through the gate and, combined with the stiffer rear end, a manual GR86 can feel a touch clumsy when dawdling about town.

But that all comes to an end pretty abruptly when you lay into the GR86's sharp throttle pedal and wake up the 2387cc 'FA24' boxer four-cylinder. The new car may have much grippier 215/40 R18 Michelin Pilot Sport 4 tyres, not the Prius's Primacys, but with that new-found mid-range grunt, you can slide the GR86 at deserted suburban roundabouts to your heart's content.

Around 150km of urban driving later, though, and I wasn't entirely convinced by the firmer GR86, even though it did have me smiling. Time to head for the twisties, first up the Old Pacific Highway north of Sydney onto the Great North Road to Laguna – roads with a mix of scabby asphalt, camber changes and steep gradients.

That means indulging in the reworked 'FA24' engine. It's not all new, but the cylinders have been bored to 94mm while retaining the same 86mm stroke from the old 'square' motor.

In bare numbers, the GR86 is up 22kW of power and 38Nm of torque, bringing outputs to 174kW/250Nm, but there's more to the figures. Torque now arrives at 3700rpm, rather than the absurd 6400-6800rpm it did before. The result is a muscular and flexible GR86 with no more flat spot.

The GR86 hasn't lost its love of revving out either, but the redline does seem to cut in sooner than the 7500rpm suggested by the tachometer. Toyota claims a 0-100km/h sprint of 6.3 seconds and kerb weight of 1291kg for the manual GTS.

Nailing the short-travel throttle is accompanied by a curious synthesised sound that sits somewhere between Mazda RX-8 and Honda Integra Type R. Odd, but the more I listened to it, the more I liked it. It's definitely better than the old 86's gruff bark.

With the extra power and torque, the GR86 is finally effortless on a country road. More than enough grunt to leave it in third, but revvy enough to indulge in second, too. And this effortlessness encourages quite a lot of commitment from the driver.

The GR86's chassis set-up is edgier than the BRZ's and requires deliberate but sensitive inputs to extract its best. Throw it in hard and nail the throttle like you would an MX-5, and you’ll probably get a whiff of understeer. The same is true when you get a little greedy on the loud pedal mid-corner, and the nose pushes slightly wide.

I kept coming back for more, taking the GR86 out over and over to indulge the car's balance and accuracy. With a little more camber, or stickier tyres, it’d be right at home on the track.

Back home to the mundanities of urban life, though, and the GR86 can get on your nerves. Including on the freeway heading home from my next run up to the Central Coast, where the boxer engine droned unpleasantly at constant high speeds. The GR86 also jostles the driver on broken concrete sections, but that's sort of expected from a sportscar.

The GR86's ride is firmer everywhere than the slinky BRZ, too, and that can get tiresome. I’m not sure the GR86 could be my only car. What I am sure of, though, is that chief GR86 engineer Yasunori Suezawa and his team have taken a Porsche-like attitude to refining this $50K sportscar. It's a little more powerful, a tad sharper, a touch more involving and all the better for it.

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The GR86's rated fuel consumption is higher than turbo-petrol hot hatches but in the real world, it is possible to get consistent 9-10L/100km. Over 1000km of mixed driving we managed to slightly better that, recording 9.2L/100km for the whole stint.

That gives this sportscar a driving range of around 530km from a full tank and meant I topped it up three times over 1000km.

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Standard safety features for the GR86 GT include seven airbags, anti-lock brakes, stability control and a reverse camera. The tested GTS adds rear cross-traffic alert and blind-spot monitoring.

Only automatic Toyota GR86s get forward auto emergency braking (AEB), rear parking sensors with low-speed reverse AEB, adaptive cruise control and lane-departure warning, leaving the manual seriously wanting for kit.

It's a shame, given other manufacturers such as Hyundai, Mazda and Ford have all managed to get AEB working in their manual performance cars.

The GR86 is more useable around town than you might expect. You sit low, but not stupidly so, meaning visibility is good. The cab-forward position also makes the GR86 more natural to place and park than two-seaters such as the GR Supra, Nissan Z or Mazda MX-5.

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The guarantee doesn't specifically cover track use like Hyundai's does, but Toyota won't void your warranty for attending a non-competitive track day.

Servicing is due every 12 months or 15,000km. Being a Toyota, the dealer network is expansive and capped-price plans are cheap. Each visit will cost a GR86 owner just $280, for a five-year/75,000km total of $1400.

Be wary of the type of driving you’re subjecting your GR86 to though, as the capped-price service schedule is the bare minimum. Regular attendees of track days would be well served by an interim oil and filter change between Toyota's stated intervals.

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We awarded the Subaru BRZ a high accolade of 9/10, so why didn't the GR86 get the same score? Well, they’re no longer as identical as they once were, plus Toyota's price gouging on the safety gear-lacking manual is hard to bear.

Despite a lower score, my money is going to the GR86 as an overall sharper tool. Only by a few per cent, but the crisper chassis response – that is, admittedly, begging for stickier tyres – suits me just right.

A longer time spent in this sportscar revealed that although it's been tweaked and honed in an almost Porsche-like way, the GR86 still has foibles; primarily the occasionally firm ride and minimal safety equipment on the manual.

If you’re considering an automatic GR86 or thinking you’ll use this sportscar exclusively, or at least mostly, on the road, then the BRZ is a more well-rounded choice.

As it stands though, the fact you can buy a more hardcore second-gen GR86 should be celebrated.

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A Sydney boy through-and-through, John wasn't treated to the usual suite of Aussie-built family cars growing up, with his parents choosing quirky (oft-chevroned) French motors that shaped his love of cars.