Although we have already seen clearly the 2022 Subaru BRZ, Toyota has been playing shy with revealing anything about its version of the lightweight rear-wheel drive sports coupe with boxing engine. Thursday, thanks again at the Australian patent office, we can at least look at the front bumper.
IP Australia has released the design documents submitted by Toyota for the front bumper of a car, and is almost a rudder for the next 86, which some experts believe will be called GR86 in the future. The design was filed on Oct. 30, according to the government department, and was formally registered on Jan. 18.
The overall shape of the headlights (or the bottom of them, anyway) seems to be identical between the two models, so the main changes are reserved for the grille and side ducts.
You’ve always been able to distinguish the first-generation BRZ from 86 from a distance based on grid orientation. If the car was smiling and had a mustache, you were looking at a Subaru; if it was wrinkled or looked a little distressed, it was the Toyota. So worth it, it looks like this mental shortcut will also be applicable to the GR86, except for the stache part. This time neither will have a mustache.
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Given that historically these cars have been virtually identical except for their badges, I find it interesting that some enthusiasts prefer to consider them exclusively as Subarus or Toyotas. By the time the two originally came out, my high school and college friends tended to fall into BRZ camp, because a lot of them were WRX friends anyway. (Of course they were. They almost always have that age.)
For me, the “true” ancestor of the Toyobaru is the AE86 Corolla, so I first see the car as a Toyota. Ultimately, it probably has more to do with the brand you like and the fact that Toyota originally chose its version of Scion probably didn’t help its credibility with certain sects in the automotive community. But that’s all in the past!
While we don’t have numbers for the GR86, we expect it to match the BRZ’s 228 horsepower and the 184 pound-feet of the four-liter four-liter plan that both cars will share. There could be slight weight differences (the first-generation BRZ was slightly heavier than the 86) and the new BRZ tipped £ 2,815 on its lighter finish. Both cars will enjoy a lower center of gravity and a stiffer chassis, which will help them fly as is well known.