Motor Trend Report: Toyota FT-86 to get 305hp STI engine!

[BanningZ]

Toyota Extending Subaru Product Sharing to Highlander-Tribeca

FT-86 to Get More Powerful Subie STI Engine

January 03, 2011 / By Todd Lassa

Toyota is studying how to more closely converge its products with Subaru, and might share its next-generation Highlander midsize crossover platform with the Tribeca. The two have similar dimensions, notes a source familiar with the tie-in.

As always with Subaru, the sticking point is how to share a platform that would use a longitudinally mounted boxer engine, in the case of the Tribeca, with a transverse-mounted engine, as in the Highlander. The platform also will have to accommodate a hybrid version of the Highlander, and it's a good bet the system would be adapted to the pancake-engine Tribeca.




Toyota tackles the problem with the upcoming FT-86 rear-wheel-drive sports coupe by going with a Subaru pancake engine -- the STI's 305-horsepower, 290 pound-foot version of the 2.5-liter turbo four, our source says. Earlier reports had the FT-86 launching with less-powerful Subaru engines. Toyota's development costs have ballooned, however, and the FT-86 is now seen as a mid-$20s car rather than a sub-$20,000 car.

Subaru's version of the 086A, as the project is known, is still scheduled for 2013 model year introduction and will likely be sold with all-wheel drive only, as part of its differentiation from the Toyota.

Subaru is leading development of the 086A, while the converged crossover platform looks to be more of a Toyota project. To accommodate both types of engines, the platform could be the same from the A-pillar back, but would need a different floorpan from the firewall forward. Subaru's flat engines require specific solutions for crash standards.





As for the crossover/utility vehicles, both the Camry-based Toyota Highlander and the slow-selling Subaru Tribeca are due for replacement in the 2014 model year.

from http://www.motortrend.com/features/a...eca/index.html


Dude! A sub 2700lb car with a 305hp engine?? Could be interesting