Miss the thrill of a rear wheeler kicking up dusts on the world rally arena? Then Toyota bears some good news as their motorsport partner TMG has announced plans to build a rear-wheel drive rally car based on their critically-acclaimed Toyota 86.
Known as the GT86 or Scion FR-S on other parts of the world, TMG is targeting to enter the 86 into FIA’s new R3C rally category. This new category dictates that the car must have a normally-aspirated engine with a capacity from 1.6 to 2.0-liters, a minimum weight of 1080 kg and is rear-wheel drive.
With the details given, TMG plans to build their rally car using the existing GT86 CS-V3 endurance racer and expects it to be ready for customer teams by the 2015 season. Engineers will tinker on the engine, give the car better brakes and install a six-speed sequential gearbox connected to a limited-slip differential. The pricing for this new rally car will be announced soon.
Aside from the plan of getting the 86 into rallying, Toyota, together with TMG may be making a comeback to the top WRC category with a rally car that is most likely to be based on the Yaris, which TMG has already developed for the lesser R1A category. Compared to the 86 hpweverr, this plan is still years away from happening.
