Behold the Awkwardly-Named 2017 Toyota 86 860 Special Edition
Toyota has announced it will launch a new 860 Special Edition version of the 2017 Toyota 86 later this march that features special styling, additional premium features, and some extra performance tweaks.
First, though, we have to address the elephant in the room: what in the world is that name? The Toyota 86 860? Really, Toyota?
Clearly, the automaker wants to make something special out of the number 86 in its car’s name. We knew already that was limiting the production of the regular 2017 model to just 8,600 units, though that’s not exactly a low number for a sports car. In fact, 8,600 units is actually 1,100 units more than the number of 2015 Scion FR-S cars that were sold in North America before Scion was re-absorbed into Toyota, which means it is little more than a marketing stunt—“say it’s a ‘limited production’ vehicle and maybe more people will buy it!”
Related: Learn more about the Toyota-Scion transition
But Toyota didn’t want to stop the 86 theme at just 8,600 models. So now we have this: the 860 Special Edition, of which 860 models will be built. We get where Toyota is coming from, but the end result is just clunky. If anything, just name it the 2017 Toyota 860. Or the 2017 Toyota 86 Special Edition. It’s not like you have to have the 860 in there.
Anyway, we digress. If you can get past the name, the car genuinely does look interesting. On the outside alone, it gets the thin rear spoiler from the European Toyota GT86, an underbody panel, 17-inch black chrome alloy wheels, restyled fender vents, LED foglights, heated side mirrors, and a restyled front and rear end.
Related: 2017 Toyota 86 features & trims overview
Inside, the 860 adds heated front seats in black leather with orange stitching, a thicker steering wheel with black and orange stitching, push-button start, dual-zone climate control, a leather-wrapped shifter and handbrake, and a 4.2-inch multi-information display that shows various performance metrics such as horsepower and torque curves as well as a stopwatch and g-force meter.
It starts at $30,040 with the six-speed manual and will go on a one-month production run starting in late March. Oh, and it gets racing stripes. 860 models will be in Supernova Orange with black body stripes and 860 models will be in Halo White.
Wait a second… that’s 1,720 models. Damnit Toyota!
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