no, not practical
Given theyâd have to pop up every time you hit the brakes, thatâs a lot of popping up to be done 
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Turns out I was able to get >300 bhp from 2.4L of displacement without pushing fuel consumption over the maximum limit - I just added a turbo and tuned it so that it would spool up early in the rev range. Took me a while to pull it off, though.
This is my entry reveal. I was going to make it as late as possible to spring a fast one on everybody, but I wonât have time!
#This is how Toyota should have done it
This is written without mention of the partnership with Subaru, because, as far as the corporate politics goes, Subaru was made part of the project because Toyota bought a stake in Fuji Heavy Industries which included Subaru
Like many enthusiasts with a popular culture bent, I nearly wet myself when Toyota announced it was going to build a sporty FR coupe with an emphasis on a mixture of excellent chassis and entry-level sports accessibility. As the spiritual successor to a great deal many things, most notably the AE86, but also with a rich historical pedigree spanning from the 2000GT, the Celica, the Supra and many more, this car had possibly the most hype to live up to. It teased a beautiful silhouette, the promise of a small but punchy NA engine and a six speed manual, and the potential to be modified, tuned, chopped and dropped and drifted to within an inch of its life. And in many ways, these dreams have come true.
But was it really all that it could have been?
After the excitement of the concepts, the GT86 lacks a bit of visual flair in the flesh. The shape is there but the angles and the styling became muted, lacking in bite. Especially those confused looking tail lights on that generally confused looking tail end. It lacked the visual elegance of the 2000GT, and lacked the in-your-face rawness of the Celica. And it also didnât match the emerging design language of the other models⌠in fact, in many ways, the next generation of Corollas coming out at that time looked sharper and edgier 
In terms of a performance car, it also occupied a lonely place in no-mans land. Looked fondly and slightly condescendingly upon as âitâs great for a Japanese car with not enough powerâ, it catered strictly to purists who wanted to be a new part of the Trueno legacy, for better or for worse. Performance wise, it was slower than a modern family sedan, much slower than a hot hatch, and probably best matched with the eventually-to-follow MX-5 ND, with which it shared both a lot and very little in philosophy. And while it was hilarious for wannabe Fujiwaras to hoon around on its Eco tyres in not-quite-legal street drifting, and similar fun on the track, those who wanted to even keep up with your average 2012 sports car had to take it up a notch. And those who wanted to take it seriously, ended up generally swapping the engine out for something else, like a 2JZ.
What this sports car for the people really needed to be was something that existed as itself, yes. A product of the history and the vision of Toyota. That was the most important thing, and for the most part, it did that quite well. But I couldnât help but feel that a few essential parts of the template werenât quite right. The styling lacked pizzazz. The engine lacked potency and confidence. The dynamics were geared towards the wannabe parking lot drifter, at the expense, as some pro drifters would say, of its top end potential. If these things could be addressed, then maybe Toyota would have the car its loyal following deserved.
Therefore, I present to you my vision: the AE88!
Now with proper generational consistent design language
GT86 fans will see what I did here. Just donât look on the other side of the car >_>
See, now it actually looks Toyota!
What, you thought by out of the box I was going to pick a different body? The body was a perfect pick. My only gripe is that the wheelbase of this body is 2.48m, slightly smaller than the GT86 which is 2.57m. But it was by far and away the closest match. I have no issue with the body, I think the shape is perfect for the purpose.
Interestingly enough if you look back up the thread, you will find that my naming has been very similar to @thecarlover. This is because it seems our approach has been very similar, in that I also picked an i4 engine with 88mm bore, hence AE88. But Iâm running an oversquare block⌠with a turbo. Which I cheekily named the 9A-GTA. Toyota fans who know their engine nomenclature will see what I did there 
Why would I do such a thing? Because this is the point at which the engine has a) good company b) plenty of potential. With reliability of 72 with not particularly high end parts, this engine has been tuned for its stock form, but it has a lot of room to move, especially as this is the eco tune, yielding a fuel economy of under 6L/100km. More aggressive tunes of the same parts can push out an extra 60-80bhp with maybe a cost of 1-2 points of reliability. And thatâs with a redline of 9k. Go stage 3 on this and you can reach 400bhp while keeping the economy under 10L/100km. Then strip out the rear seats, put in a rollcage, replace the tyres with semi-slicks, stiffen the springs and sway bars and you have yourself a nice drift car with a power:weight ratio of 325bhp:tonneâŚ
But I digress. Back to the stock trim. It comes with 235/45R17 Medium compound tyres, but we thoroughly recommend using sports tyres, however, for maximal handling and performance potential. It also has standard seats and a basic (but high quality) entertainment system, which you can option up if you wish. But if youâre a driver of drivers, I donât see why youâd spring for anything but the Sport seat package.
What these graphs donât tell you is that a) the first three gears are quite short, which is great for keeping the engine ticking over on tight corners where you might want to, er, slide the tail out, b) the top three gears are quite long, which are ideal for cruising at 60km/h, 80km/h, and 100km/h respectively for maximum economy, c) the ratios are overall spaced such that there is near seamless powerband for when you do want to put the boot in and get some real track racing done.
Thanks to finely honed balance with responsive steering, this car keeps its nose on point. And with adequate amounts of power, you wonât get left in the dust by your track day friends who rocked up in their tuned Beamers, or the latest crop of hot hatches. After all, itâs kind of embarrassing to always be sucking VW exhaust.
Airfield Lap Time. Green Hell laptime is, on these tyres, about 8:26, 8:20 on sports.
And the best part about all this? Youâve got a complete package, a worthy successor, the spirit of Toyota sports, for:
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[color=red][alpha]itâs an LFA![/alpha][/color]
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It does have a bit of Lexus in it, I do agree. That was intentional. But as you can see I stopped short of putting the vent grilles around the tail lights in the same manner (because that would be going too far). I consider the Lexus design language to be an extension of some of the hints that are kind of bleeding into the Toyota lineup at large, so the comparisons will be inevitable.
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Your engines powerband and torque delivery is really on point. You certainly know what youâre doing with a turbo.
no, thats more like how the FT86 should be released
But the stats are pretty good too 
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youâre saying???
also⌠2 things about stropâs car⌠was LED already a thing back in 2012? and i donât know about that being âsomewhat practicalâ
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Audi R8 already use LED since 2006 and im pretty sure Lamborghini frequently use LED light after 2010
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What he said ^^^ Denta nailed it.
And even if you say they arenât LEDs, xenon headlights have been around for even longer.
I didnât really think about it. I mean LED was already a thing but does Toyota do it much, maybe not so much. I just wanted cool looking daytime-running lights which I know Honda was using since 2012, because it looked [smartass]fancy[/smartass] 
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yeah. but theyâre pretty much super cars. and this is a budget sports car
and xenon lights are pretty similiar to lightbulb in a way that, they still need reflectors donât they?
whatever. iâll just pretend thatâs just some clever reflector work and that it still uses bulbs
@strop uhhh i guess??
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LED strips are dirt cheap. You can find strips of the stuff on eBay for next to nothing. Doesnât mean it will go on a car that easy, but itâs not very expensive.
Then again to get them engineered properly onto a budget car might be outside the scope of the car.
This is where I pressed Automation creator privilege and used this as a statement: Well, we WISHED Toyota kept the cool parts of their concept cars when they built the thing!!!
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just say strop manage to make budget LED light thought im pretty sure a single LED light bulb price was like about $10 per piece back then
Can make it an RS trim level option for an extra 3 grand
i just found that in 2010 Prius use LED with Halogen/HID headlamp as optional so yeah why not re use them on 86 or its replacement