LET’S get the Toyota GT86’s price out of the way early on.
There’s no way to sugarcoat it, because it’s £28,230. That’s a lot of money for something that’s as compromised as it is. You might be expecting a lot of fancy kit for that kind of outlay, but you’d be wrong.
There’s no parking sensors, none of that hill assist nonsense for those whose clutch control leaves a lot to be desired, no heated seats and certainly no hateful pre-collision assist - which absolutely should be banned from production cars - lurking beneath.
It may seem like I’m on a bit of a downer with Toyota’s first real crack at a rear-driven sports car for years, but I’m really not. I think it’s fantastic that a car in today’s nanny state motoring world has opted against following suit and stood out from the crowd.
As impressive as their fuel economy figures and bulging power outputs are, turbocharged engines - which just about every manufacturer now uses - are no comparison when you have a naturally aspirated screamer like the one that’s fitted in the GT86.
It’s a 2.0-litre with 197bhp, ample for a car that weighs a smidge over 1,200kg, but it’s one that craves revs, with peak power being produced at a heady 6,000rpm.
Turbos are out of puff at that point, so to have a new car which delivers its best performance at that point and all the way to its 7,500rpm limiter is what purists who can’t afford Porsche 911 GT3s have been wanting for years.
The GT86, a joint scheme between Toyota and Subaru, has been around for five years now. One is used by celebrities on Top Gear’s race circuit, so it is a familiar car, but I’d always been a bit nonplussed by it.
That was until I stepped in our test car - the limited run Club Series - which is painted in a look-at-me metallic orange hue.
The first thing you’re greeted with is its dinky size. It sits low, its 17-inch alloys are tucked neatly into its arches and it’s very much a head-turning sort of car. I love how it looks - head on, side on or from behind, it’s styled just right.
Clamber in and the next thing to stand out is its perfect driving position. There’s a pair of thinly-padded alcantara seats which help by sitting low in the chassis, but the steering wheel adjusts so you can tailor its position just so.
So far so good, and you’ve not even thumbed the starter button. When that’s done, it fires up with a hearty dose of revs, signifying its intent. It settles into an unsophisticated thrum, but a few stabs of the throttle reveals the one thing that’s constantly missing from the turbocharged brigade: razor-sharp throttle response.
The GT86 does crash from bump to bump, but it doesn’t take long to tap into its magic. The steering is brimming with feedback, every brush of the accelerator results in an unrestricted bark from the twin exhaust pipes and it just feels right from the off.
As soon as you get into a car with a properly sorted set-up, you know within 100 yards it’s going to provide you with what you want. After a week with it, I can safely say it does, time and time again, constantly leaving a smile on your face.
It’s a throwback, the GT86. The biggest compliment I can pay it is that it feels old - it doesn’t feel like a modern day sports car because it is traditional in every sense of the word.
Can you think of a sub-£30,000, front-engined, rear-wheel-drive, naturally aspirated car with a manual gearbox? I can’t, because there’s no such thing in today’s world of effective-but-characterless cars in that price bracket. They’re all turbocharged, they’ve all got too much tech and they’re so far removed from their simplistic forebears.
It isn’t perfect, though. The GT86 by its nature is tricky in the wet - 197bhp is not a lot in 2018 but it’s ample to swing its rear end out, so you have to be alert. In the dry it’s faithful, partly thanks to its limited-slip differential, and true to its line but you know in the back of your head that it has an inner hooligan that can be coaxed into playing at the drop of a hat.
Its six-speed gearbox requires warmth and hates the first mile or two, but when its oil warms it’s a joy to use. The whole drivetrain is great, actually, and as it’s mated to a rev-hungry engine the pair work together very well.
That engine is the standout star of the show. It can sound a little uninspiring low down after that energetic start-up, but it comes alive towards the top reaches of the rev range and rewards its driver with a much-missed, unshackled naturally aspirated noise.
It’s good enough to post a 0-60mph time of 7.5 seconds, but in truth it does feel faster than that. To read too much into the perhaps disappointing on-paper figure does the car a disservice, because it doesn’t describe the freneticism of the way it goes when it’s on its feet and in its sweet spot.
But this car is not for everyone. People who enjoy driving and the simple thrill of being behind the wheel of something so unique in today’s world will love it, just as I do, but others will bemoan its shoddy build quality, lack of kit and poor fuel economy.
Its interior is lifted by the supportive seats, but there’s little else in here to discuss. It’s sparse and almost like it’s a last-minute botch job - the switchgear feels like it’s come straight from the parts bin of a mid-1990 Corolla - but to make up for that you get something that’s been built by engineers who know what they’re doing.
The Toyota GT86 should be celebrated for what it gives to the market. It’s a two-fingered salute to its rivals, a throwback to when things were less complicated and just better for people who love cars.
