The ultimate Toyota 86, without fiddling with the engine.
[Not a valid template]Just how fast can a Toyota 86 go without having its trademark 2-litre boxer fiddled with? That was the question that the clever people at Toyota Racing Developments asked of themselves, and they set about finding out. The result is the Toyota 86 TRD Griffon, and we had a chance to poke around it at this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed.
The engine is completely stock, but apart from the windscreen, pretty much everything else has been changed. The wings, bonnet, boot lid and doors are made of carbon fibre, while the bumpers are made from carbon fibre-reinforced plastic, all of which shed weight. All the glass save for the windscreen has been switched for polycarbonate , and a lot of the car’s components have been strengthened or upgraded.
The standard Torsen limited-slip diff has been replaced with a TRD unit and the suspension has been changed for racing-spec springs and dampers. The gearbox hasn’t escaped TRD‘s attention either, with the final drive ratio changed. to 4.8:1. The wheels are 18-inch TWS numbers wrapped in Yokohama Advan tyres.
Inside, most of the interior is gone save for a racing seat, steering wheel, extra gauges and Takata seatbelts. The brakes have been upgraded to cope with the extra speed that the Griffon can deliver.
The project is basically a demonstration of what’s possible with TRD parts. We like the result.
– Shots courtesy of Luke Gilbertson
