Devel­op­ment has been pro­gress­ing behind the scenes in the new ‘AE86’ with JDM lovers 7tune releas­ing some tan­ta­liz­ing details about Sub­aru and Toyota’s new ‘AE86’ col­lab­o­ra­tion, called sim­ply the ‘Light­weight Sports Car’. It seems the light­weight RWD coupe is in the devel­op­ment stage, and Toy­ota believes they can get this new car con­cept to mar­ket by next year.

New ‘AE86’?

The car is appar­ently being aimed at the under 2,000,000 yen mark. In itself this is inter­est­ing because typ­i­cally, a JDM RWD coupe could very eas­ily exceed this. Keep­ing this in mind, cost is the rea­son for the car’s 1.5L (EL15) DOHC flat-​​four engine. This DOHC engine puts out a very ho-​​hum 110ps @ 6,400rpm and 14.7kg/m @ 3,200rpm, and is a cheap, cost effec­tive motor. Know­ing this, Toy­ota wants the car to be under 1100kg to pro­vide any sort of performance.

The test mule cur­rently sports a 200mm shorter ver­sion of the Legacy chas­sis, 4WD run­ning gear (minus front drive), dou­ble wish­bone sus­pen­sion, and a Subau dif­fer­en­tial. How­ever, 7tune tells us the dif­fer­en­tial is a weak link, and it is more likely we will see the Impreza 15S plat­form over any fur­ther vari­a­tions of the Legacy platform.

The aspect of this car that con­fuses us is that EL15 engine and it’s dis­mal out­put. Why? Both Sub­aru and Toy­ota have plenty of expe­ri­ence in mak­ing decent power DOHC motors in the 2.0L range, and in mak­ing light vehi­cles when they wish. Cost is a fac­tor, but one has to won­der if the new col­lab­o­ra­tion wouldn’t be bet­ter served by adding 500,000 yen and giv­ing us a more potent motor, even if it’s a sourced tur­bod­iesel, like the new Boxer TDi.

Per­haps Sub­aru and Toy­ota are using the EL15 only to deter us, and have some­thing more potent in the works. Some­thing along the lines of the Mugen Civic RR’s 177kW N/​A — or even ditch­ing N/​A for a tur­bocharged flat four. Per­haps add a few pounds to sort out the rear end, dri­ve­train mechan­ics and chas­sis strength — the extra weight would eas­ily be accounted for with greatly increased power.

Per­haps Toy­ota has for­got how to make a sports car in the long years since the Supra, and even longer years since the AE86.

[Source: 7Tune]

Appar­ently. Here’s a peek:

New AE86? Click to enlarge. Pics from Auto­blog

A low down on what we can expect:

• RWD (of course)
• 1.5L 2NZ-​​FE at 120HP (Yeah right. If it’s any­thing like AE86’s still going, this won’t be for long, *hint hint* turbo)
• Under 1000KG ( = FUN)
• 4m long by 1.7m wide by 1.35m tall
• Will come from Fuji Heavy Indus­tries (Sub­aru. I pre­fer it when the Japan­ese car­mak­ers COMPETE)
• Will be under US$12,300!

All I can say is ‘Bring it on’. A new light car to throw around, fuel effi­cient, cheap, rwd decent looker. Why not? I don’t think it’ll live up to the heavy cult fol­low­ing of the orig­i­nal, but this could be a tuners dream, and a cheap daily in it’s own right. Now to peti­tion for a turbo model.

edit: The 2NZ-​​FE isn’t 1.5L but 1.3L and 85HP. Some­one got it wrong.