Toyota and Subaru confirmed as far back as April of last year that the two companies would collaborate on the development of a new affordable sports car, however, until now it was largely assumed that the two cars would be much the same except for some subtle styling differences.
According to a new report, the two sports cars will be very different. While Toyota’s version has already been previewed by the FT-86 concept car, which featured a 2.0-liter ‘boxer’ four-cylinder engine with about 200 horsepower and a rear-wheel drive layout, we still don’t know what Subaru’s version will be like.
Insiders have now revealed that the Subaru version will adopt the automaker’s symmetrical all-wheel drive system and feature a 250 horsepower version of the same four-cylinder engine. Subaru’s sports car is also expected to feature a longer wheelbase than the Toyota, and this, plus the extra weight of the all-wheel drive system, will warrant the extra power.
The bigger size and more powerful engine also means that the Subaru sports car will likely be positioned and priced higher than its Toyota’s sibling so that two don’t directly compete with each other. Estimates put its pricetag at around $30,000, or about $5,000 more than the price of Toyota's sports car.
[Edmunds]
