Posts tagged sports car

Toyota FT-86, the return of Japanese Sports Coupes

3
1009 days
by in Cars, Concept Cars, Japanese Make

In the previous post on Mitsubishi FTO, I’ve mentioned Japanese car maker’s reluctance on making affordable performance cars in the past decade or so. This painted a pretty bleak picture for sports car enthusiasts (who aren’t also super loaded).

There’s good news on the horizon. Apparently this trend might see a reversal with the news of the concept car from Toyota – the FT-86

Toyota FT-86 concept sports car

The FT-86 is pretty much inspired by the popularity of AE-86 that is made popular by the comic series Initial-D. Nicknamed the tofu car, AE-86 has a huge cult following especially in the drift racing series, and still cheered upon whenever appeared at Autocross events.

interior of Toyota FT-86

A collaboration between Subaru and Toyota, the FT-86 is to come with a new 2 liter Toyota-Subaru “D-4S” Boxer engine. Targeted to cost around US $20,000 when it is eventually launched, that’ll place it cheaper than a fully loaded Honda Accord (or Toyota’s own Camry for that matter).

I, for one, welcome Japanese manufacturer’s return to this segment, 6 speed manual with 2.0 liter boxer sounds like a good combination to me.

Check out wiki page for more details.

Mitsubishi FTO, the sleek Japanese FF coupe

0
1062 days
by in Cars, Japanese Make

black and white mitsubishi FTO

In the early 1990s, the Japanese car makers offer quite a good lineup of pretty affordable sports cars. Cars that were geared towards enthusiasts who aren’t necessarily fixing their midlife crisis.

Mitsubishi had two models that fit into the category, the GTO (and Dodge Stealth), and the little brother, the FTO.

FTO stands for “Fresh Touring Origination”, and it is really a sleek little car that is rather capable. Equipped with a 2.0 liter MIVEC V6 engine with 24 valve. The car produces up to 200ps at 7500 rpm without an aid of a turbo. Quite impressive.

The 0-100 km/h speed is in the mid to high 6s mark, not quite as impressive as its closest rival, the Toyota MR2, but would still beat over 80% of the cars out there with it’s NA engine in FF configuration.

Specification:

  • Engine: 6A12 2.0 L DOHC 24v MIVEC V6
  • Weight: 1200 kg
  • Wheel base: 2,500 mm (98.4 in)
  • Power: 197bhp
  • 0-100 km/h: 6.5s (GPX version)
  • Top speed: 225 km/h

The second (or third of many hand) FTOs are now trading in Malaysia for about RM 40-50k region. Since FTO was produced only from 1994 to 2000. There aren’t many of them around anymore, so if you can get your hands on one in awesome condition, I’m sure you won’t regret it.

After all, how many cars were in Jackie Chan’s movie Thunderbolt (1995)as one of the main characters? Check out the video below for some old time classic!

Go to Top