What's all this about?
Toyota is going to create a one-make race series for the GT 86... Down Under.
What, in Australia?
Yes, we're afraid so - because the idea of watching some rear-drive, lightweight, affordable sports cars dicing door mirror to door mirror sounds great to us.
So what will be involved?
The GT 86 is known only as the Toyota 86 coupé in Oz, so the racing version will be the Toyota 86 Pro-Am race series, supporting the V8 Supercars at all events.
Pro-am? You mean not all the drivers are proper racers?
No, five selected professionals will mentor and compete against a larger field of amateur drivers, who must qualify to get onto the starting grid.
And what spec will the cars be running?
The 86 race cars are based on the GT manual model, with various components controlled to ensure suitability and reliability while at the same time keeping costs as low as possible.
Is Toyota pleased about this?
Of course. In fact, the chief engineer of the GT86 - Tetsuya Tada - said: "My dream is that one day we can have a World 86 Challenge with the best drivers from Japan, Europe and other markets - and the champion Toyota 86 driver from Australia." So let's hope that dream becomes a reality.
Matt Robinson - 28 Feb 2015