I once had the honour of living with one for a year, covering almost every mountain pass in South Africa in one, and a couple of racetracks too. Ignore the fact that the GT86 can cover metres of tarmac at an angle perpendicular to the road (hello limited slip differential) there's no denying the value of the thing.
The range has, however, been streamlined right down to a single high-spec derivative. It thankfully retains that brilliant flat-four 2.0 litre motor, the D-4S boxer partnered with a manual 6-speed transmission making it the purist's choice.
It churns out a traction-defying 147kW and 205Nm plus now also gains larger Brembo brakes (high-performance ventilated rotors) as well as SACHS performance dampers. Together these conspire for entertaining handling plus an engaging and responsive drive on 17 inch alloy hoops tucked into each arch.
Toyota has taken away metallic black from their GT86 palette and replaced it with Bright Blue - Crystal White Pearl, Ice Silver metallic, Dark Grey metallic, Pure Red and Lapis Blue Pearl colours remain. All vibrant hues against which you can better view the new GT86's black trim - most notably the new black boot spoiler and matching folding side mirrors.
Kit levels are high including LED lamp lighting (head, tail and fog) plus liberal applications of Alcantara in the cabin, heated seats, dual-zone climate control and keyless entry. The infotainment TFT screen is new and feature laden especially if mobile phone pairing is your jam, via Bluetooth and USB pairing via Apple CarPlay and Android Auto integration (in addition to the usual fare) and with it a wealth of compatible apps such as Waze and Spotify.
Toyota's own satnav comes standard as does a 3 year/100 000km warranty, plus 4 year/60 000km service plan. Yours for R575,000.00 - no longer cheap in my humble opinion but still worth the price of admission.
That is unless you're into straight line performance where the GT86 is sorely lacking thanks to that low torque figure. In which case there are more than a fair whack of warm-to-hot hatchbacks that will trounce it, albeit none with a Toyota badge.
