How the Scion FR-S Almost Never Happened and Why Subaru Thought it Was a Bad Idea!!

[import_nation]

The Scion FR-S might be the most exciting sports car in years and it might also be the most important project Toyota has ever launched, helping change perceptions about an automaker that has become known for building appliances. But the back-to-basics enthusiast sports car almost never happened, according to Chief Engineer Tetsuya Tada, speaking at the car’s launch last week in Japan.


The concept for the car, originally the brain child of then Toyota VP Akio Toyoda (the man currently at the helm of the world’s largest automaker), was initially rejected by Subaru, which eventually went on to donate the engine to the project and even handle the lion’s share of the sports car’s development, resulting in both the Scion FR-S (also known as the Toyota GT 86 in Europe or just the 86 in Japan) and Subaru BRZ.

Shortly after Toyoda took the helm, Tada san was assigned to a planning division set up for the project. After studying what everyone else was doing, (seeing the use of turbochargers, all-wheel drive and high grip tires), Toyota decided to move in the opposite direction, instead opting to build a sports car that harkens back to the roots of machines like the AE86 – from which the GT86 gets its name. It occurred to Tada san that an ideal powerplant would be a boxer engine, due to its low center of gravity. Toyota had an historical precedent for the use of a boxer engine in the Sports 800, built from 1965 to 1969. Toyota also just so happened to have access to such engines through a recent purchase of shares in Subaru parent company Fuji Heavy Industries, and a shared project could help foster relations between the two rival automakers.

A proposal was penned, for a rear-drive, boxer powered sports car and presented to Subaru, which immediately axed it. Subaru executives had two major concerns says Tada san, the first being that a rear-drive machine doesn’t fit with Subaru’s all-wheeldrive brand message. The second reservation, and one that speaks to Toyota’s newfound attitude of taking ownership of its beige-to-drive past, is the admission that Subaru didn’t think Toyota could build a sports car. And while harsh, it’s not entirely surprising, after all, the last sporty Toyota was a Celica GTS in 2006 and the last rear-drive Toyota car to roll off an assembly line (at least for US consumption) was in 2005.

The project was then suspended for six months but eventually the team involved at Toyota helped convince the powers that be at Subaru. Exactly how that happened remains a mystery, although one possible conclusion can be drawn from a graph Toyota revealed to AutoGuide and a group of journalists gathered to drive the car at Sodegaura Forest Raceway, just outside Tokyo. On it is a breakdown of who handled what in bringing the GT86/BRZ to market. In the end, teams at Toyota were responsible for planning and design while manufacturing and development were handed over to Subaru. The concept may have been Toyota’s, but Subaru, a company with plenty of recent and current enthusiast-targeted models, was tasked with ensuring the FR-S/BRZ was a fun-to-drive, dynamic handling machine. Toyota representatives steered clear of confirming as much, but it would seem a compromise was struck, with Subaru bending on the rear-drive architecture. In exchange, Toyota handed over development of its sports car to Subaru.

As a result, the first prototype was build back in 2008, and was what one Toyota exec referred to as “proof of concept”, prompting both automakers for forge ahead with development and design, leading first to the FT86 concept at the Tokyo Motor Show in November of 2009, through numerous concept cars, all the way to the official reveal at the same show two years later, our recent gushing test-drive, and a planned on-sale date of this Spring.

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There is a bunch of good information here regarding the development of the Toyota 86 / Subaru BRZ. TO me it really sounds like Toyota forced Subaru to abide by what they believed in. I personally think this car would have been an even bigger success if Toyota did listen to Subaru. The decision to not use AWD makes sense as if Subaru made this car AWD it would just compete with their WRX cars. But stickier tires and a small turbo would have really shot this car up high. Higher then it would already be.

What do you guys think?

[dboz]

Good stuff. I agree, if a turbo fits, they should have come strong out of the gate. I think there will be a lot of "wait and see" buyers which hurt sales. The Genesis Coupe has a poor aftermarket for big dollar changes since it is usually all young people can do, just to make the payments without dumping thousands into mods on a low buck car. We will see. Sure wheels and cosmetic changes but turbo upgrades usually run into the 3-5k range with the supporting mods necessary. So once you get a car nearing $30k there is a lot more choices. Hopefully this car will be a success.

[hatchi]

wait and see buyers will always be there, i think for scions best interest when the car is released offer nation wide test drives! and promote the living hell out of this car! just like how GM let you test drive their cars and vettes and such!

If more people were able to drive the car, hell it'd be one awesome car! guys like Autoguide, auto Blog and Speed hunters and edmunds.com all gave this car a huge postivite review, of those 12 outlets that went, they all came back with a huge smile im sure!

[import_nation]

I am personally surprised that Subaru had so little say in the design of this car... I wouldn't be surpirsed that if the relationship between the two go a bit sour Subaru will go ahead and throw a turbo motor in to boost sales.

[Viprdude]

Subaru, typical elitist attitude that almost would have ruined this car from being made the way it is.

[import_nation]

Do you believe the car would have been worse if Subaru had more of a say?

[FR_S_Fan]

Do you believe the car would have been worse if Subaru had more of a say?

I think the car might not stick to it's routes of being a RWD car. If Subaru was in full control of this car with Toyota totally out of the picture, we would've ended up with an AWD compact coupe.

So I wouldn't say it would be worse, but just different. Kinda like a STI coupe.