New car news

09 May 2011 - 12:00

Toybaru for Oz show

We've seen pics of the Toyota FT-86 around for a while, but if you want to check out the car that lobbed a couple of months back at Geneva, you're in luck - Toyota is bringing it out for the Australian Motor Show in Melbourne in July, and telling everyone that the car itself will be here late next year or eaerly 2013.

And it'll be cheap. "We would like it to be in the early $30,000s," Toyota's PR head man Mike Breen told news site GoAuto. "That's where we would like it to be; doesn't mean it will be there."

So, what do we know? Well, the aim of this car is to bring a bit of sexy back to Toyota. Rear-drive, manual-box sportsters are thin on the ground these days - Mazda's MX-5 and RX-7 are the only ones that spring to mind, in fact - but Toyota intends to change that.

To be powered by a "free-revving" (read: naturally aspirated) four-cylinder boxer motor  and mated to a rear-drive six-speed manual gearbox developed with Subaru, the Toyota should be light, lithe... and affordable.

Click here for pics, and check out this behind-the-scenes vid of the FT-86's first shoot.