Confirmed: Bigger, Badder Subaru “216A”

[carfreak]

Just as soon as the Toyota FT-86 was born and came to this world at the Tokyo Motor show, it’s bigger, badder twin brother is about to hit the stage.


It’s well known that Subaru and Toyota have been in the same bed developing the FT-86 but one question that remains on everyone’s lips is how, if they are developing the same car, can the two be different? Well it’s emerged that Subaru has been busy waving their wand over the 086A/FT-86 and is going to bring some very Subaru style magic to the table.



The biggest news to come out of all this is that rumors of the car being turbo and all wheel drive are now in fact confirmed. However staff close to the Subaru development side of the project have revealed is that the first thing to differ will be the codes which the cars will be known by. While the version of the FT-86 to go on sale in Japan will be known by the code 086A and in the US and Europe as the 087A and 088A respectively, the Fuji Heavy Industries version will be branded as the 216A. This is to “clearly distinguish between the Toyota and Subaru version of the car”. Things get juicier from there though with the confirmation of what many have been suspecting all along. The car will be driven by a 2.0 liter turbo charged powerplant feeding power to all four wheels. This will either come in the flavor of a revised, lower power but more efficient 250ps and 34.0kg/m EJ20 from the Impreza 2.0 GT or the EJ20 Turbo from the current Impreza WRX STi pumping out 308ps and 43.0kg/m of torque. Our guess is the latter may well be used for an STi version of the car down the track. No pun intended.



Body wise, the the Subaru version will be bigger and badder but at the same time tipping the scales to the tune of around 100kg more than the 086A. This seems to be a reasonable weight gain seeing that 4WD has been added and the dimensions have been increased in the region of 20mm all around. Total height and width will go from 1260mm to 1280mm and 1760 to 1780mm respectively. Wheelbase and total lengths have also been extended, with overall length reaching 4180mm and the wheelbase gaining 30 to 50mm, up to around 2600~mm from 2570mm. This is almost spot on to the current Impreza’s 2620mm so the possibility of them sharing parts or being very similar is undoubtedly high. The final distinguishing factor between the two? Well that will be the price. The increased performance, all wheel drive and pumped body will be adding around half a million yen to the tag bringing the car to around 3 million yen come 2011. This is not only to cover the extras over the Toyota but also to distinguish itself from the FT-86 version.