This is a 750bhp Toyota GT86

Our love for the Toyota GT86 is deep and true, but we’ve always suspected the 200bhp rear-drive coupe could handle a little more power. And it seems Toyota agrees.

At the LA show, it showed a Scion FR-S – the very car we know as the GT86 – stuffed with a ludicrous 750bhp. This thing packs an old school wallop in a new school package.

And by old school, we mean the fourth-generation Toyota Supra’s much vaunted – and infinitely tunable – 2JZ-GTE engine. It’s a turbocharged 3.0-litre inline straight-sixer used to great effect in the 1990s, here tuned to make more power than the Pagani’s Huayra’s 6.0-litre twin-turbo V12.

Which should be adequate. One tiny issue: as you may have guessed, the MegaScion is not road-legal. In any way. This FR-S is, in fact, driver Ken Gushi’s drift car for the 2014 Formula D season.

“Obviously we need to make sure we’ve got adequate horsepower for the drift competition,” a Scion spokesman told us. “A lot of these guys are dropping V8s in these drift cars, but we didn’t feel that was authentic. The closest thing to us was to drop a Supra motor in there. It’ll be great to see a ‘six’ beat a V8.”

Not that they didn’t try a standard inline four. “We’ve got a second car in competition that has a Scion TC 2AZ motor in there (that’s a 2.4-litre) pumping out 600bhp, but we needed reliable power, constantly. The old Supra engine is a proven powerplant, and it doesn’t break.”

The FR-S gets a full ‘Rocket Bunny 2” kit – featuring bonkers new front wings – 19in Rays wheels, FIA racing seats and harnesses, Wilwood brakes, a four-speed ‘G-Force GSR’ transmission, and 730lb ft of torque, too.

“We’ll start testing it in January or February next year, ahead of the Formula D season start in April in Long Beach,” confirmed our spokesman.

Want one? You can buy all the bits yourself, if you’re that way inclined. “When you start adding the extras, you’re adding another $60,000 to $100,000 to the car’s base price. I mean, everything’s been gutted, strengthened and lightened.” Ah yes, lightened: the whole thing weighs around 1290kgs. That’s less than a diesel Ford Focus.

We hate to be predictable, but… when’s the road legal version coming, Toyota?