Over the past few years, the internet’s developed an obsession with spec. Colors, options, little touches that make a car more interesting than it would be in black-on-black. We’ve slowly seen automakers start to incorporate deep greens and even the odd purple back into their lineups, but it feels like we’re only getting started. Later this year, Toyota will sell you a GR86 in yellow, and my god, is it ever good.
Specifically, Toyota reached into its back catalog of colors and pulled out the vivid Yuzu instead of say, the pearl-heavy Flare Yellow or the slightly cool Solar Yellow. It’s a great shade, especially considering how Yuzu is a color with some neat history regarding these cars.
Remember how Scion used to do Release Series models in special colors with a few odds-and-ends added? Well, at the 2014 New York Auto Show, Scion unveiled a limited 1,500-car run of Yuzu Yellow FR-S coupes with TRD body kits, TRD springs, a quad-tip exhaust system, a TRD steering wheel and shift knob, and all the luxury sundries normally only available on the Subaru BRZ. The resulting FR-S Release Series 1.0 was a pretty hot car, so it’s great to see this treatment revived more than a decade later.
However, lots of bits that seem to make this special edition such a throwback appear to be optional. The TRD body kit is an accessory, and the quad-tip exhaust system is an accessory, so you really just end up getting a loaded-up GR86 with yellow paint, yellow perforated upholstery, and yellow stitching. Then again, the body kit isn’t going to be to everyone’s taste, and the goodies you do get as standard are pretty nice.
When I write that this thing comes loaded, I mean including the Performance Package that bundles Sachs dampers with Brembo brakes. While the ride quality is going to be on the stiff side, judging from experience with the similarly equipped Trueno Edition, the brakes look wicked, should hold up well to track use, and accommodate a wide variety of pad compounds.
Plus, the 228-horsepower flat-four now comes with tweaked, more linear throttle mapping that Toyota claims will make rev-matched downshifts easier. I can’t wait to try it in the real world considering the calibration of earlier GR86s was a bit unrefined at low engine speeds, and a six-speed manual is really the right choice over the optional six-speed automatic.
It’s interesting to see Toyota roll out a yellow GR86 considering Subaru’s offering a purple BRZ. Two complimentary colors for two slightly different versions of the same car, although I definitely prefer the BRZ Series.Purple’s silver wheels to the GR86 Yuzu Special Edition’s black rollers. At the same time, Toyota went so much harder with the interior that slapping on your favorite set of aftermarket wheels seems like a good way of creating the perfect Gen 2 twin.
If you want a GR86 in the best color, Toyota’s only making 860 U.S.-market examples in this vibrant Yuzu hue, and they aren’t expected to roll into showrooms until the autumn. It should be worth the wait, because the world really needs more yellow sports cars to give everyone something to dream about.
Top graphic credit: Toyota
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Sad they’re making so few in this color. I would have chosen the yellow over my pavement grey and not looked back.
Is this by any chance the same metallic yellow that’s now available this year on the Prius? IIRC, maybe the Prius one was a bit more mustardy?
I love this because, in 2015, while working in Toyota’s Production Engineering division, I launched a One Lap of America program and got Toyota Motor Sales to let us use the yellow FR-S that was built as the concept for the yellow Series 1 that you showed above. This concept car had been turbo charged, with a roll cage and race seats installed, making it a really fun car to drive after I adjusted to get some rear grip back. Ken Gushi had been using the car for some drifting promotions and clearly had it set up to his liking, but it was slowed on the track by its balance.
The engine blew up (because turbo Subaru) 1 week before the OLOA, but in a mad push, it was rebuilt to run the event. Sadly, it failed again late into the event, handing the class to the BMW 1M that I actually ended up later driving in the 2019 OLOA. I’m happy to see, though, that the Toyota Production Engineering Motorsports team has really become a staple of OLOA competition and been highly regarded by their competitors in the years since I left.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8IC6dHr460&ab_channel=ToyotaNorthAmerica
When did Subaru sell the FR-S/BRZ engine with a turbo on it?
They didn’t. It was custom-built. It was this car.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2sbHjETE0U&ab_channel=Scion
Enjoy these while you can folks. With the new tariffs and the razor-thin almost non-existent profit margins on these, I just can’t see a future where Toyota and Subaru keep bringing them into the U.S. I’ve already read somewhere that some of the luxury German brands are planning on killing their entry level offerings stateside for the same reason. This will surely put the nail in the coffin of affordable sports cars.
This feels like the twilight zone man…
Based on an internet chart (so grain of salt and what not), the Miata, BRZ/GT86, and Corolla GR all would be hit pretty heavy by the tariffs (very low domestic content). So I agree with you…those could be in some danger.
Yeah man, it’s a shame. Right when Toyota was bringing in their sportier offerings our Cheeto in Chief decides to pull this crap.
I love how you point out you can track this car, without pointing out Toyota won’t warranty anything if you track this car and something breaks.
“because the world really needs more yellow sports cars”
We need more anything but black, white, gray, or silver-colored cars period. Who are these people that are so boring that they want to not be able to differentiate their car from every other car in the parking lot?
I can’t be the only person who doesn’t give a damn about potential resale value and would rather have a red, yellow, orange, green, purple, or whatever color instead.
The sea of silver, black, white, and gray is absurd. And the muted matte color-suggestion colors are arguably worse. They’ll label a car green and it’s the slightest drop of green color into the gray paint bucket. The car still looks gray damn it!
what color is your car?
I have a burgundy car, with burgundy leather seats.
I also have an orange car, with leather seats in alternating dark and light grey color. To this car I have added “walmart blue” elements, such as fuzzy dice upfront, resprayed donut rim in the back (inside the car sadly). But am preparing to add a tow hitch step, also sprayed same blue. (The wheels are too nice to sandblast/powdercoat, wish they had been steelies to do that to).
Green. It’s lovely, especially against the tan convertible top. Just need gold wheels and it’ll be perfect!
Three of my four cars are blue! The remnant is a ’92 F350 longbed dually, which I dont’ think was available in blue, and when purchasing a specific version of a used truck, not much chance of finding a blue one.
My DD is Mazda red, and my rally car has the M stripes over an (admittedly) white base.
Red. Before that – dark blue, teal blue, red, blue, and maroon. I’m not breaking any exciting ground, but why settle for monochrome?
I have a blue car with bronze dipped wheels. Doing my bit to keep the automotive landscape colorful.
Those people are inventory buyers at car dealerships, who don’t want some sales-proof puce-colored thing bolted to the floor for six months.
They are by nature conservative because there’s a lot of money on the line, so they stock what sells. And those boring “colors” sell because most people in the U.S. are also chromaphobes.
Other markets are different because the cars are built to order (you wait for it to arrive, vs drive it home out of stock).
That’s one thing that the tariffs might spur, depending on how long the economic hammerlock to force political fealty goes on.
Some of us own black sports cars because they couldn’t find a shiny blue one after searching for six months…
That’s fine. I’m mostly hating on the lack of good color choices, I won’t fault someone for settling if they need a car and just can’t find the colors they want.
I do not understand the obsession with boring available choices though.
Unfortunately, the people buying most of the new cars are the ones that are most likely to sell them and care about resale. I’m not at the point in life where I’m shelling out full price for cars yet but wish there were more colors to choose from.
You’re not a hero for having a non-grey car and if it wasn’t for the sea of grey cars, the colorful ones wouldn’t pop. Shut up.
Jesus, Ron! Take a deep breath.
How about no? You’re not a hero for being anonymously aggressive on the internet.
Perhaps you’d be happier if your DD wasn’t boring as dirt and made you sad and angry to look at the (lack of) color every day.
But that’s fine, if you want more needlessly cranky people like Ron tooling around, keep making the world’s most boring color choices and eschewing any chance of starting your ride with a smile.
LPT – If you get that bent out of shape about someone’s (not even that serious) post, you’re just admitting to everyone that they poked at a sore spot.
Come out of the monochrome closet and join us. We have colors and fun and you clearly want to anyway.
PS – I liked your post even though it was mean because it seems like you could use some positive reinforcement.
I am one of those people. I love silver and black. Always have. But I wonder, why do I need to differentiate my car out in a parking lot? That seems to insinuate I give a shit about standing out as a primary motivator. Standing out still requires me to care what others think about my car, as I don’t need my car to appear special to anyone but me, and it does that regardless of the color. The only thing I care about is that I like looking at the car. And I like black and silver, so I’m fine with those. I also own dark blue, thrashed yellow, patinaed teal, etc. I like those too. I DD a black 92x Aero. I’m not particularly worried it will blend in with all those other 92xs….
If I’m being honest, a primary reason in parking lots is so that I can quickly find my car. Sadness of all sadness that a rare color such as…… Red, means that I can immediately identify my car in almost any parking lot, but it’s true.
I actually don’t hate silver as a color choice, but it does sadden me that almost every car on the road in my area is black, white, or silver. Are they timeless colors…..yes. Is it also quite a bit repetitive and boring…. also yes.
What a great time to buy! Pay extra for the color, extra for the dealer markup and another 24% to our Buffoon-In-Chief!
These will be $60k with dealer markup and tariff markup? Maybe $70k? Wow this is a stupid timeline.
I predict this is the last we’ll see of these. With the tariffs, they’ll soon figure out it isn’t worth it to sell small, affordable, already low-margin sports cars here anymore when they’re not actually affordable. The Miata might even leave too.
You’re probably right.
That interior is fantastic and reminds me of the S2000 CR, if a bit more muted on the seats. I wish this interior were offered with other exterior colors like their beautiful forest green.
Do the exhaust tips collect gravel like my mustang did? Like the safety yellow too.
All non-gravel-collecting exhaust tips are alike; each gravel-collecting exhaust tip collects gravel in its own way.