It’s a luxury vehicle, and a great toy at the same time.
And just a little bit rare! (build no. 621)

I’m luvin’ it!

It’s still better looking than the latest EVO X and Impreza!

I would’ve thought this car would be like a spiritual successor especially with all that power to hand.

It’s almost second nature for a japanese performance car of this caliber to be AWD or RWD

All this performance for an average fuel consumption of 10.5-11.5L/100km (depending on how I drive). It won’t keep up with the HSVs or Evos, but if you like a practical day to day car that you occasionally want to sprint around in, while not breaking the bank when filling up at the bowser, then I recommend this car. Of course, if you can afford it, go for a HSV GTS!!

Granted, it won’t beat any track records but the drive is so refined and the build quality is very good. I’ve thrown it around heaps and it just keeps going. The brakes are remarkably resistant to fade.

There is torque steer but I find most people exaggerate it. I think Toyota have left it in on purpose in order to enhance steering feedback. Seriously, if you can’t control it you need to go to the gym. It’s really not that big a problem.

The main issue I have with this car is the loss of traction. The traction control is quite conservatively tuned, especially in the wet, and driving to give it full power from stop will be met with much wheelspin. Once I learned how to control it, there’s not that much problem. When cornering, there’s a bit of difference in driving technique as compared to RWD/AWD. I find the best results when I brake early, go through the apex of the turn and once I have cleared the apex I stomp on it and the car swings clear and rockets on.

She’s not an easy beast to tame, but once you learn the ropes she will reward you with an utterly fun drive. That’s what separated this car from the rest that I drove. It’s really fun to drive. And not to mention I love the look on the faces of XR6 and SS owners when I give it a jolt and hear the whine of the supercharger as I pull away from their shocked looks.

Lastly, the car looks awesome, especially in red. I have lost count of the number of times people have literally stopped and gawked at the car, and I get people walking past and giving me the thumbs up for no reason. It’s a Toyota, and it’s on steroids. The game has indeed changed!

This is a very nice ride, with few flaws. Unless you have driven one don’t criticise it. The torque steer really is not bad at all, not even a handfull, and if you can’t handle bit of ‘wheel jockeying’ fun you really shouldn’t call yourself a driver at all.

After being a Ford man for many years Toyota’s have recently become a favorite build of mine, after being burnt with a BA Falcon The Toyo’s I have owned before only proved to have good reliability & low mantenace costs. I was happy to purchase this over the F6 ‘phoon’ that was the same price as I know it wont even cost half as much in the future.

Really the only 2 things I dont like are; the integrated exhaust. It looks hot but if you have actually seen this, you will know what I mean, the exhaust pipe is not actually connected to the stainless flute that is part of the rear bar. This causes a mass of carbon deposits all around the bumper The exhaust pipe doesn’t even point in the right direction.

Also the traction control cannot be switched off. I know it sounds like suicide to want to turn this off in such a high powered front wheel drive, but as a ‘well acomplished’ driver (some would argue that)I would prefer to control my own wheel spin. The traction control is not consistent anyway, sometimes it will break loose into a tyre frying frenzy and other times it will really retard the power output.

Bottom line, this is an exclusive car with a heap of character, and certainly points Toyotas in a better direction. I am very happy with mine.

Cheers

Let me introduce myself.. My name is Mickey Mouse!

You can be anything you want on a message board.
Please stop telling us to take a Toyota of any kind on a track day. Have you had a look at the standard tyre width on most Toyotas??? Understeer heaven! I know what I am missing out on and I’m happy to miss out on blandness.

Well that’s a pretty bold statement.

I have driven and owned them,along with other front wheel drive cars.Toyota is becoming one of the most blandest manufactures out there.

Finding its limits would be its problem, I guess if your happy with its limits then good on you but it aint going to excite me. Some drivers limits different like cars I guess. I like to test mine by upping the anti not going backwards in performance.

I’m an Engineer, I’ve had Falcons and Commadores forced on me for over 15years as company work cars. When you spend all week in them you learn to hate them.(thats when there not back getting fixed under warranty)

The problem with Falcadore Taxi owners is they have never driven let alone owned a Toyota so they don’t understand what there missing and they never will.

As for FWD, take it out to a track day, open it up, find its limits, end of problem.