A newly revealed idea automobile constructed atop the Toyota 86 platform has us lamenting the truth that it was by no means constructed. Known as the Toyota X86D idea, it was designed at Toyota’s Calty studio in Southern California in 2012 however was stored below wraps for over a decade.
Again in 2012, there was a lot buzz surrounding what was then known as the Scion FR-S. The nimble and inexpensive rear-wheel-drive coupe was a breath of recent air in a market that hadn’t seen loads of exercise within the sports activities automobile class. Toyota considered methods it might broaden that platform to different physique types, together with what it describes as a “four-door taking pictures brake.” That truly sounds quite a bit like a plain ol’ wagon, however we get it; the (vastly faulty) standard knowledge says that wagons aren’t cool.
Nonetheless, a compact wagon the scale of an FR-S sounds immensely cool. Toyota’s description of the X86D even says an all-wheel-drive drivetrain was a part of the plan. AWD or not, it will have benefited from the well-balanced front-engined, rear-drive-biased structure of the 86, in addition to its low-profile flat-four engine.
The idea made it to the full-size mannequin stage, which isn’t insignificant. Which means it handed the 2D paper or digital illustration and 1:4 scale mannequin phases. The look deviates fairly considerably from the FR-S, with a dramatically curved rear window on the hatch.
The X86D was designed at Calty, which Toyota based in 1973. These days practically each main automaker has a studio in Southern California, however Toyota’s was the primary, based to check drivers’ habits within the American (or, arguably, world) coronary heart of automobile tradition. Manufacturing automobiles which have emerged from Calty embody the 1979 Celica, the beautiful Lexus SC, and the 2024 Tacoma.
The Scion FR-S was subsequently renamed the 86 when the Scion model was killed off, after which renamed the GR86 for the present technology. Whereas the various curves of the X86D would have possible been toned down for manufacturing, it is nonetheless a tremendous thought. Even when designers stored a lot of the FR-S’s strains and simply grafted the hatch onto it, we might have been eagerly lining up for a compact sportwagon. Alas, we have been by no means provided that likelihood.