The only words I have to describe my day at Donington with the GT86 are WOW and AWESOME.
Its truly a great drivers car, it may be "only 200bhp" but you can use all of it all the time, the chassis is so sorted - filled you with confidence but still had that little cheeky oversteer to warn you when the limit was there, but the front end is tight - 53/47% weight distribution to aid corner turn in and to loosen the rear a little on braking felt perfect. They decided on this weight distribution after getting it to perfect 50/50 then driving over 9000 miles round the Nurburgring! With all the diver aids off (and you can turn it all off inc ABS!!!) its still easy to drive and communicative but very rewarding when you get it right, the electronics dont hide any dodgy chassis traits here!!!
The attention to detail is stunning, .65mm pressed front wing panels from the GT4 rally days (cheating) of weight saving, alu bonnet, no inner wings on the arches - just see the splash guards from under the bonnet!! Thinner front qtr light glasses to save the weight, lowest in-class centre of gravity - 460mm, close to that of supercars, Front radiator laying down at an angle to allow the nose to sit low, oval exhaust under the engine so the engine sits lower, the list goes on!!
The engine block is Subaru but the head has been re-enginereed by Toyota, 86x86mm bore and stroke and now Revs a lot higher than a standard lazy Subaru Boxer. The Toyota interestingly has different suspension to the Subaru BRZ and its been noted in the press to be a lot better for it, stiffer rear springs and softer fronts.
All in all I was very impressed and cant wait to drive it again, 6 years in the making and worth the wait for me !!!