TOYOTA GR86

YOU CAN SPEND MORE ON OPTIONAL EXTRAS on some of this year's contenders than it costs to buy a Toyota GR86 outright (although the UK’S allocation of under 500 cars sold out as quickly as the latest Porsche RS model), yet its place at ecoty 2022 is entirely justified.

Its formula is one that many manufacturers claim can’t be made to work in today’s world as they look for excuses to move away from cars people desire to those that suit a PR friendly mantra. ‘No one wants affordable performance cars!’ they cry. Toyota simply laughs at them.

What looks to be a heavily revised GT86 is in fact a thoroughly transformed car. A larger capacity flat-four, more power and torque as required rather than for the sake of it, an improved gearshift and a myriad of detail chassis changes – from increasing the wheelbase length by 5mm to reducing the centre of gravity by the same amount – have created not only one of the best affordable sports cars we’ve driven for a long, long time but one of the best driver’s cars period. Its inclusion was never in doubt regardless of the exotica that’s been launched over the last twelve months.

From the moment we drove a prototype at the end of 2021 to the car’s launch at the beginning of 2022’s long hot summer, the GR86 has impressed not because of its price point alone but because it shows that, like the very best hot hatches from Ford Performance and Hyundai N (and Renault Sport in the past), quality engineering and dynamics don’t have to be the sole domain of the premium marques that set social media alight. Toyota could charge 50 per cent more for the GR86 and it would still be worth every penny. That’s how good it is.

Good enough to take on the world’s top supercar brands, the might of AMG, the resources of Audi Sport and the heritage of BMW M and Porsche’s GT department? Don’t bet against it.

‘THE GR86 IS QUITE SIMPLY ONE OF THE GREATEST SPORTS CARS OF THE CURRENT ERA’ – STEVE SUTCLIFFE, EVO 304