The Toyota GR86 is poised to gain a sharper, track-focused special edition with less weight – but possibly no more power.
A faster, limited-edition GRMN version of the Toyota GR86 sports car may be unveiled next year and introduced in 2025, according to a new report out of Japan.
Reputable Japanese publication Magazine X reports the ‘GRMN86’ – as it may be called – is due in 2025 as the fastest and most track-focused version of the second-generation GR86 to date.
GRMN (Gazoo Racing tuned by Meisters of the Nurburgring) is the highest tier of badging in the Toyota Gazoo Racing range, above regular GR high-performance cars, and GR Sport packs, which typically add sportier suspension and styling.
The latest reports follows a year after the magazine first outlined plans for a hotter version of the sports coupe, though at the time a launch date was not given – and eight years since the original 86 GRMN, which was a Japan-only, high-priced special edition.
It remains to be seen if the new model is also a Japan exclusive – as most Toyota GRMN models, including the GRMN Yaris, tend to be.
According to Magazine X, the GRMN86 is planned to lose weight through a carbon-fibre bonnet and roof – and add an extended front splitter, tall rear spoiler, and new exhaust system with central outlets.
The 2.4-litre non-turbo four-cylinder ‘boxer’ petrol engine will remain, but Magazine X says it has “little room for growth”, and “dramatic performance improvements are not expected.”
The magazine says there is not enough space to add a supercharger, and it would not be feasible to bring the GR Yaris-derived 1.4-litre three-cylinder turbo engine from GR86 Super Taikyu race cars in Japan to production as it would require costly changes to the sheet metal between the engine and cabin.
Magazine X speculates on a slight uplift in power by “reducing the weight of parts and reducing friction” – which may be accompanied by a strengthened six-speed manual transmission.
It claims Toyota will add chassis braces under the floor of the car, and increase the amount of structural adhesive used, to improve body stiffness.
Toyota is reportedly considering a polycarbonate rear window to reduce weight further, though Magazine X claims it is struggling to find a component supplier willing to produce the part with the heated wires need to enable defrosting functionality.
“Although a certain supplier was the first in the world to achieve this, the yield rate at which the product could be shipped as a passing product was so low that one person said ‘they don’t seem to want to accept it again’,” Magazine X says in its report, published in its print magazine.
“For example, if Toyota, an assembler, provides financial backing to support suppliers, it may eventually lead to a breakthrough [which would make it cheaper] and be able to be applied to mass-produced cars.”
The original 86 GRMN is said to be the first mass-produced vehicle with a polycarbonate rear window that retains a defroster.
According to the magazine, the Toyota GRMN86 is not due in Japanese showrooms until 2025 – though a prototype may be unveiled earlier, as soon as the Tokyo Auto Salon car show in January 2024.
It says the unpainted body shells (known as the ‘body in white’) of GRMN86 coupes will be produced at Subaru’s factory – where the regular model is built from start to finish, alongside its Subaru BRZ twin – before it is shipped to Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Motomachi factory to finish the assembly process with the company’s “craftsmen”.
The Toyota GR Yaris was unveiled at the Tokyo Auto Salon in 2020, while the GRMN Yaris (above) was shown at the 2022 event.
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