The Toyota FT-86, GT-86, Scion FRS - CHRIS HARRIS ON CARS

CHRIS HARRIS: I'm standing at Jarama Circuit
just outside Madrid.
We've come here from the UK for 24 hours to have 20
minutes driving a new car.
I wouldn't normally agree to this, but it's the new Toyota
GT86, which for me is one of the most
exciting cars of 2012.
The problem is 20 minutes isn't very long, so I devised,
being professional, a special six-point plan of how to get
the very best from your 20 minutes with a car.
Point one.
Film absolutely everything, because you're going to need
every minute of footage.
If you have to, film the presenter in the airport.
Film him practicing oversteer on an Airbus Air
321, if you have to.
Point two.
Find important people wearing corporate clothing.
Beg them to give you special treatment.
Lie about how many viewers you have.
Do whatever it takes to get special treatment.
So we've got 20 minutes in the car.
Can [INAUDIBLE] some more.
This is going out to a lot of people.
The audience is massive today.
It's literally bigger than The Simpsons--
millions of people on YouTube Drive.
Millions.
MALE SPEAKER: Well, it's time.
We haven't got room.
But, Chris, as each year, we give you an extra go.
CHRIS HARRIS: Thank you very much.
Thank you very much.

Point three.
Avoid alcohol--
it will prove to be a distraction and compromise
your efficiency.

Point four.
Identify the bloke with the fastest looking shoes--
real racing slippers.
These denote a hand.
He will tell you stuff you need to know.

So Tetsuya, I've driven the car.
I've been waiting to drive this car for many years.
TETSUYA TADA: Oh, really.
CHRIS HARRIS: I'd like to congratulate you.
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
TETSUYA TADA: So you--
CHRIS HARRIS: You have created a new cut.
TETSUYA TADA: Yeah.
CHRIS HARRIS: This was the plan, yeah?
TETSUYA TADA: So we kept you waiting, sort of.
CHRIS HARRIS: Point five.
On Earth, a fact that your viewers will
not have heard before.
And is the differential just a conventional--
TETSUYA TADA: A [INAUDIBLE].
CHRIS HARRIS: It's [INAUDIBLE].
TETSUYA TADA: Yes, [INAUDIBLE].
CHRIS HARRIS: Because it feels like a mechanical
differential.
It feels like--
TETSUYA TADA: Yeah, right.
But because [INAUDIBLE] already prepare ourselves.
We [INAUDIBLE].

CHRIS HARRIS: Do you?
TETSUYA TADA: Yeah.
Already.
CHRIS HARRIS: For the drifting people.
TETSUYA TADA: Drifting people and the racing people.
CHRIS HARRIS: Yeah.
TETSUYA TADA: If you experience [INAUDIBLE]
you will get another [INAUDIBLE].
CHRIS HARRIS: OK.
So that's the factoid that I wanted.
We're going to get a mechanical
differential, as well.
Point six--
and this really goes without saying--
treat all tires like they deserve to die.

GT86.
I've wanted to drive one of these since the day they
enhanced it.
What do we feel?
Well, nice, low driving position.
At Jarama Circuit and I've got literally no time in the car.
Half an hour.
So.
Let's have a little think.
What are my initial impressions in this car?
I do like the driving position--
I wish the wheel came a little bit closer towards me.
Gear shift--
short, positive.
Yeah, I'm liking this.
Massive rev counter in front of me with a very clear speed
reader, and that works really well.
This circuit was opened in 1967, and it held nine Grand
Prix between then and 1981, which [INAUDIBLE], and then it
was [INAUDIBLE] to be too technical.
No matter how you drove [INAUDIBLE] around here,
because [INAUDIBLE].

However, [INAUDIBLE]
Euro decided to launch this car, here.
A stroke of genius--well done.
You're straight to the top of the class.
It suits the car perfectly.

[LAUGHING]
It's there.
The suggestion is there.
This is the car I have been waiting for.
This is the affordable rear-wheel drive car.
Not a 911, not a Ferrari.
Not a Maserati, not a BMW M car.
It's a Toyota.
It's going to be well under 30 grand, and it's going to give
us fantastic rear drive [INAUDIBLE].
A excited I am about this car.
All right, so the traction's off now.
Coming into a little bit of break away, [INAUDIBLE]
the car in, and there it comes.
[LAUGHING]
Yes!

OK.
I've got to break the car down now.
[INAUDIBLE] little section.
First of all, steering.
Positive, quite light.
Enough feel, for me, anyway.

[INAUDIBLE].

It's perfectly suited to the speed and
character of the vehicle.
So, [INAUDIBLE].
Ride.
I can't tell you anything about the ride, because I'm on
a circuit, and that means it's smoother and [INAUDIBLE].

We [INAUDIBLE] this car for so long, but back to the stuff
that we've got to talk about.
Brakes.
I'm running out of brakes, but this is not a circuit car.
So I'll live with the brakes.
The brake pedal is nice.
It feels good.
The engine.
This is interesting.
To me, it doesn't actually show any outward signs of
being a flat-force [INAUDIBLE], a [INAUDIBLE], a
Subaru-based engine.
It revs nicely.
I like the fact that it's [INAUDIBLE] get it going to
about five and a half to get its best, and then it does go
nicely up to about seven and a half.
Noise--
not especially inspiring.
So, to me, probably [INAUDIBLE] is the noise.
[INAUDIBLE]
every time the noise [INAUDIBLE].
[LAUGHING]
The chassis.
The chassis is interesting.
Let's talk about the balance of this car.
The balance is neutral-- a little bit of safety
understatement, not much, actually.
Even in the quick stuff, the car's natural response is just
to go into a little bit of an oversteer.
That [INAUDIBLE] chassis engineering terms it's very
[INAUDIBLE] and I'm really appalled [INAUDIBLE]

[INAUDIBLE].
I just love it.
I think it's brilliant.
A stroke of genius.
And I didn't expect it to [INAUDIBLE].

[INAUDIBLE]
TT driver isn't going to groan about the quality of
[INAUDIBLE].

It just [INAUDIBLE].
Now, to some people, that's totally irrelevant.
[INAUDIBLE].
All I'm saying is this--
you don't have to be [INAUDIBLE] everywhere on the
[INAUDIBLE].
But that behavior, there, that's
indicative of a fun car.
Wrap that back 60% on the road that feels rear-driven.
You want a car that feels like it wants to move around a bit
under power.
And that's something that surely all drivers like.

If ever it was worth flying to Madrid from the UK for a 20
minute drive, this was the time.

Well done, Toyota.
I think we're going to be friends, me and the GT86.
There are many things that I love about my job.
Of course I love my job-- it's the best job in the world.
But there's one thing I love above everything else about
it, and that is now and again you are present at a
significant event.
And I think the launch of the GT86 is significant.
It takes the philosophy of going faster and faster in
[INAUDIBLE] of having to be faster to be better--
faster lap times.
And it just throws it out the window.
It says, let's get back to fun.
Let's make the car have less grip, let's have less power,
let's have less weight.
But let's focus everything around the
driver and not the machine.
I think that's a really important shift.
I love the car.
I've loved Jarama.
Go and buy one.
I'd say buy one.