Cost-cutting and consolidation in the motor industry is forcing players like Toyota and Subaru, alliance partners, into sharing parts not necessarily best suited for their intended purposes. In spite of this, development of Toyota’s Subaru-based sports car, the FR, is gaining much-desired momentum. Word is, bosses at Japan’s numero uno have decided on the final shape of the car and we are lucky enough to have Best Car magazine lead the way, so to speak, in offering renderings of this front-engined rear-wheel-driven sports coupe. Toyota owns a minor stake in Subaru’s parent company Fuji Heavy Industries.
FR is described as possessing a “wonderful style” as far as looks are concerned. It’s a car based on a shortened Subaru Legacy platform whose suspension system has been identified by Toyota engineers as being “weak and terrible”, again, meaning good for a family car but not entirely suitable for a 200m sprinter. Nevertheless these die-hards have vowed to work on it until it handles like a real sports car. Not the best solution but when budgets are tight you have to make do with what you have.
Solid and proven, the 2.0-litre four-pot boxer with power of 190 PS (187hp), aimed for a 200 PS (197hp) production stage, is to be fitted. Accompanied at the hip by a 6-speed gearbox, it should carry itself well enough in the 1200kg (2645 lbs) body. Fuel consumption is always a concern and Toyota hopes not to have to reduce power by too much for the sake of frugality, but that possibility is fast turning into a probability even at current oil prices.
Now you tell us, if indeed FR turned out very close to this look, would you pick that over Nissan’s future 370Z?
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