Our visit to Top Gear’s studio in England yielded an interesting find in the parking lot.
It’s a Toyota GT 86, a lovely affordable rear-driven sports car that happened to be parked right outside the TG set.
What makes it interesting however is the recent reports from British media, as you may have read, talking about Top Gear replacing the Mini Cooper rallycross car with a Toyota GT86 for their guest celebrities.
The red GT86 happens to be the latest facelifted model, which gets a lightly refreshed exterior, a stiffer body, a retuned setup and the same flat-four 2.0-liter engine with 197hp. Clearly the owner(s) wanted to make it a bit stiffer and safer, which is why we see a half cage fitted inside along with a pair of proper bucket seats.
This particular example was an automatic too, with a manual twin car also present before someone took it away from curious journalists that happened to carry phones with cameras on them.
We couldn’t spot any other modifications, with the car even wearing its original low-grip Prius tires, making sure that whoever is going to drive it on a track will have plenty of fun trying to control the loose rear end.
The new season of Top Gear will premiere on Sunday, March 12 on BBC America.
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