Hey, all welcome to Eagles Canyon Race Way. My name is Faye Hadley.
You may recognize me from a couple different shows on Motor Trend,
All Girls Garage on Saturday and Sunday mornings and Motor MythBusters.
But believe it or not, I don't just play a mechanic on TV, actually.
It's my real job.
And this is actually my real working uniform that I earned when I got my first
job working for Toyota, which was at a Portland area dealership.
I started out my career on the express maintenance line.
So shout out to all of you that trained me at Broadway Toyota. Heck yeah,
y'all have the real MVPs because of you now.
That's how I make my living enough about me though,
because the real MVP is this all new 2022 GR86
behind me. This is awesome.
Everything about this car really like captures me at the soul level because this
car is a huge step forward for Toyota.
And while I can geek out on all the technical aspects and show you underneath
the hood, all the stuff, which I will do,
what I really wanna speak to you at this very moment is the sports car element
for that I'm gonna need help from special friend of mine. So hold on.
Hey, uh, yo Ken, Ken Gushi, Y'all.
Hey, Ken. Hi. Oh my gosh. Welcome. Thank you so excited that you're here,
pretty excited.
You are the absolute perfect person to help me introduce this car for so many
reasons. I mean, you have an extensive history with the Toyota brand. Yep.
But not only that,
like you have kinda like a personal relationship with this car,
like going way back.
So for the folks that don't know you are a driving legend and I mean,
and you've got such a cool history. So would you mind just giving like a quick,
you know, quick rundown on your.
History for those? Yeah, you're right. Faye,
I actually have an emotional attachment to just the numbers, eight and six. And,
um, to get into that, my name is Ken Gushi.
I am a professional driver for Toyota Gazoo racing USA driving the GR Supra and
the Formula Drift Championships. Um,
but I did get my starting drifting about 20 years ago, coincidentally,
and in 1986 Toyota Corolla GTS,
the last of the rear drives or also known as AE 86. Yep. Yep.
Now fast forward to 2007,
I actually got my start in the Toyota racing family under Scion racing.
And that's when we debuted the, uh, FRS in 2012. And if you know the FRS,
the heritage actually comes from AE 86. So, um, just with that car,
I mean, I felt like I went full circle.
So now that I'm standing here debuting a 2022 GR86,
just mind blowing to me. So couldn't be more exciting to be here. And, uh,
I just really can't wait to show you guys what this car's all about.
Oh, absolutely.
And you are like the perfect person to do it because you had the history with
the original, the AE 86, then the FRS and now this,
so like with that perspective, I'm just curious, like,
what were your first impressions on this car?
Like what stood out to you the most?
Yeah. Without even driving the car initially simply looking at it, I was like,
oh my God,
you really can't ignore the fact that you can create an almost immediate
emotional attachment to simply the way the car sits. Right?
The aggressive nature of, you know, the body lines,
the wide stance balance proportions, the low center of gravity,
all these features really embody the spirit of a sports car.
Even as simple as the front vent. Yeah. That actually serves the purpose. I,
yeah, they're actually functional.
I'm like, yes.
It's really interesting to cuz that first thing that you said your first
impression was that overall feel of like, heck yeah, this is a sports car.,
you know, clearly it is, looks like it's going a hundred miles an hour,
just like sitting next to me. But like when you start looking deeper yeah.
You realize that like everything here serves a purpose and engineers like really
thought about everything that went into this car,
like the functional matrix grille, for example, I don't know if you know this,
like if you look closely, it's not actual honeycomb pattern,
but it actually has a little G.
G like for the GR I love that.
It's so that is so cool. So I like,
I'm sort of finding these things all over the car.
So as driver I'm of course talking about the outside, I'm like, it's so pretty,
but was there anything on the interior that stood out to you that were just
like, ah, this.
Is awesome. Oh, it's,
it's almost natural to really want a cockpit that feels like you're sitting at
home, you know, every function and every feature,
all the switches that need to be there at the tip of your fingertips and you
just want something that's efficient, serves a purpose and, uh, is,
is really simple to navigate. And for that,
I think they did a great job in upgraded the interior for one,
they didn't miss that out on the tech.
Everything you need to know is right there in front of you. So in that sense,
I really appreciate the fact that they really did upgrade the tech in the car.
One thing I,
I loved was that it feels like a sports car inside where you're saying what the
bolstering of the seats. Absolutely. I really like the seats.
And then also like some of the, like the temperature knob, like for example,
looks kind of like an air fuel ratio gauge and like, it sort of looks like
it's a race car, like it's like it's supposed to be.
So actually speaking of that,
sort of nodding to something that you mentioned earlier was the low center of
gravity well.
What makes the GR86 so great on the track is that it drives as it was intended
to, and it moves really nimble and agile and you really gotta give it up to the
engineers because they took everything into consideration. You know,
all the changes are actually pretty small,
but they're huge when you add it all up. Yeah.
They even went as far as to dropping the license plate on what was originally on
the trunk, on the previous generation now to the bottom part of the bumper.
So everything adds up in the long run and that translates to performance on
track. We're talking about.
Millimeters and Grams here. Like that's, doesn't seem like that much.
Do you actually feel those changes, especially from the FRS?
You know.
Faye, I think it's easier if I just show you on track.
How about we go for a spin? Wait, wait.
Are you serious? Yeah. Like in this car right now on the track. Yeah.
You wanna go? Yeah.
It feels so stable. It really like.
I'm actually, I mean, I'm scared, but I'm not scared. You know what I mean?
I mean, I'm scared .
Oh, we're getting close to the wall, you're not hitting the brakes yet.
That.
Was amazing. I can't get over.
How fun this car is to drive.
So that was insane.
I wish there was like some way for me to be able to like bottle up that and like
share it with all of y'all, but I mean, I'm sorry. It's all, it's all for me.
But at least what I can do is like help to sort of further explain the power
plant. We can sort of like explain what we experience out on the track.
So first of all,
this brand new GR86 is powered by the 2.4 liter boxer engine flat,
four horizontally opposed pistons and a crank shaft in the middle.
That's not something that you normally see on like typical production cars.
I mean every now and then, but it's still sort of like a rarity. Right.
So how does that help out? Like from a driving perspective? Does it?
Uh, yeah, it definitely does. Like you mentioned,
it's a very unconventional engine design. Um,
most of the time you will see V's or inlines. Yeah. Um,
but this is a horizontally posed 2.4 liter boxer engine. Yeah.
And what that means is that the pistons move on the side of the engine,
there's crank shaft in the middle, like you said, now,
some of the advantages include, uh,
by design naturally they sit more compact because the pistons are under the
side, which means you can make the engine narrow. And with that,
you can actually drop the engine even lower,
which translates into lower center of gravity.
The second part or the second advantage is that the engine sits shorter by
design, which means lower center gravity. I see a theme here.
The third advantage is actually because the pistons are counter punching each
other that actually provides a smoother acceleration ramp up,
which means a smoother drive overall and, um, quieter ride as well.
So those are the main,
big three advantages to having a horizontally opposed engine. Oh.
I didn't even think about that. It's really interesting.
And so some of you're probably thinking, wait a second, Faye, hold your horses.
The previous generation had that engine too. Yeah. Okay. It had a box for sure.
But there have been some significant upgrades made to this engine--
it was bored out. We got more horsepower,
205 horsepower to 228 horsepower.
We also went from 156 pound feet of torque to 184 pound feet of torque.
But what's most interesting is torque curve and RPM stuff,
which I'd really like to see. I mean, was he sitting in the passenger seat?
I can't tell the difference in the previous generation. And this one,
is it you that made the difference or is it the car? So, you know,
can you speak that a.
Little bit please? Yeah. Yeah.
Mentioned bore size or increase in bore You're right.
It actually went from 86 millimeters to 94 millimeters in bore size,
which translates to the increased torque numbers.
The horsepower and torque actually came from other places as well. For example,
the engineers redesign the intake tube and the exhaust chamber.
So air runs more efficiently providing more horsepower running through the
engine. There's also small differences too. Like for example,
the intake valve diameter is bigger now and they hollowed out the actual shaft.
So it runs lighter than the previous generation. So,
small differences everywhere throughout the engine bay,
even as far as a lighter valve cover going,
aluminum to resin that reduced vibration and made the overall weight lighter.
So, a lot of things that went into designing this new 2.4 liter engine package,
you mentioned RPM and torque ramp up. Yeah. It's very important.
So first of all,
let's describe what the differences between horsepower and torque horsepower
comes into play. For example, let's say you're on the highway.
You come across a slower vehicle in front of you and you wanna pass 'em up,
right? Yeah. So horsepower, you get on accelerator vroom vroom. RPM goes up,
you pass 'em up. You're already at speed. Yeah. Mission accomplished.
Torque is a whole different playing field. Torque comes into play when you're,
let's say from a dig, right. You're at a stoplight.
Someone's trying to race you next to you or you're just trying to rush home.
It's actually the torque you feel first before you get up to speed.
Another place where it comes into play is, perfect example,
we're at the race track. Yeah. Um,
there are some corners where you want to stay in gear,
but then because you fall off the power band,
you have to downshift to get back into the power band.
But if your peak torque comes earlier,
you can actually stand that set gear and out of the corner smoothly without
missing any time on a shift loss.
Right. Oh my gosh. So it actually makes you faster in multiple ways. It.
Does. Yeah. Wow. It all adds to performance on track. So.
Once again,
like all these little things put together and we get like the whole package.
Another thing that I noticed you mentioned while we were out in the track was
like how the car went exactly where you wanted it to go.
So not only did it have power in the right places torque in the right places,
but it also like drove perfectly like the way you described it. I was like,
oh my gosh. It really felt that sitting in the car,
like I felt that low center of gravity, I felt very comfortable.
I felt like the car was very like structurally sound.
And there were some suspension upgrades.
There were some stiffness upgrades and there were some steering upgrades. Right.
And I have a feeling that you felt all three of those out on the track.
Can you speak to.
Any of those? Yeah.
Earlier I mentioned that what makes this GR86 so great is because it was
designed to drive as it was intended to. And part of that comes with,
like you said, the suspension upgrades,
the upgraded EPS system or electronic power steering system.
And they even went as far as to increase the stiffness of the bushings that tie
in the steering rack to the cross member.
So all that adds to a sharper steering feel. Yep. I kept saying point and shoot.
Yeah. That's exactly what this car is capable of.
You basically point the steering wheel in any direction you want to go and just
get on the accelerator shoot in that direction. So I thought.
That was just your skill.
What you're saying is that the car actually has a play in the.
Performance that I saw. Yeah. But not only that,
what I really wanna talk about is a structural increased stiffness or torsional
rigidity of the vehicle.
And they actually added diagonal bars that tie in the front cross member to the
frame, thus improving the structural rigidity of the vehicle. And for the back,
they added a ring structure that ties in the upper deck to the main body,
which also increased the structural rigidity of the vehicle.
So everything really comes into play to really make the car feel a little bit
more planted, more balanced, more predictable on track and overall fun.
We've covered.
A ton. Yeah. Today. Like I'm, I'm still like,
I'm still sort of swimming in information right now.
And I have a lot more questions to ask you, but I have a feeling that,
uh, seeing the sunset and I think that we are running out of time to maybe do
another few more laps?, Maybe.
So should we send them back? Yeah.
I think I'm going to send them back to y'all have fun. Yep. Be jealous.
Go ahead. It's fine. And, uh, what do you think, can we.