Even as the reveal of Toyota’s production-ready rear-drive sports car nears, the parade of concepts continues. At this week’s Frankfurt auto show, Toyota trotted out a second FT-86 II concept—the first FT-86 II was shown at the Geneva auto show this past March— which is the fourth Toyota- or Scion-branded rear-drive concept overall. So what’s different about the latest FT-86 II? Even though a teaser video Toyota released before the Frankfurt show hinted at an “all-new” FT-86 concept, nothing’s changed but the car’s color.
Comparing the latest FT-86 II concept to its forebears, then, is less relevant than comparing it to the Scion FR-S concept from this year’s New York auto show. The FT-86 will be badged as a Toyota everywhere except here in the U.S., where it will be labeled a Scion. We assume that the production Scion we’ll get should look identical to the Toyota version, so we expect the two concept cars to further merge stylistically as they move closer to production. Currently the FT-86 II seems the more buttoned-down of the two designs, as the FR-S was still just a clay model in NYC. That car also lacked the Toyota’s LED running lights and more aggressive front grille and rear valance.
It’s very likely that the Scion FR-S design study was made to look slightly different from the FT-86 to generate buzz. After all, Scion showing off an identical car to Toyota’s with different badges isn’t exactly a way to make a splash. We will have to wait and see how the Scion FR-S’s styling shakes out when the final version of the Toyota FT-86, and the Subaru BRZ sports car being spun off of that car’s platform make their debuts at the upcoming Tokyo auto show.
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