FT 86 To Go Live On Saturday Night! Shall I Take Slushbox Or Stick?

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

Toyota steadfastly refuses to refer to its upcoming new compact rear-wheel-drive sports car as anything else than a “new compact rear-wheel-drive sports car.” But Toyota sure knows how to whip up more excitement (if that is possible) before the pocket racer will be officially unveiled at the Tokyo Motor Show. While websites around the globe publish every scrap of paper or digits they can lay their hands on, Toyota will paint you a picture.

Starting at 10 am Tokyo local on November 20, a group of Tokyo artists will create an outdoor street painting of the car in front of Shinjuku Station’s East Exit in the Shinjuku Station Square. In case you can’t be there in person (for Shinjuku-connoisseurs: The East exit is at the interesting side of Tokyo’s Shinjuku station, close to the many cultural attractions) no problem: The creation of the painting will be transmitted in real time at a dedicated website. Note: Sunday 10 am in Tokyo will be Saturday 8 pm in New York – you can see the picture live before the Tokyoites!

Now it gets interesting: What is the site called? Newcompactrearwheeldrivesportscar.com? No, it will be the “FT-86 Fastest Painted Website.” And just to baffle you more, Toyota says the site is to celebrate “the production prototype of the ‘FT-86 II Concept’.” Are we confused yet?

We shall have more clarity on Sunday, November 27, when yours truly is promised a seat in an otherwise undefined “compact RWD sportscar” at a racetrack somewhere in Japan. I am told that I have to wear a helmet. I also must choose whether I want the automatic or the manual.

Help me out B&B: Slushbox or stick?

As proper preparation, I would appreciate pointers in the proper heel-and-toe technique, in discerning soft from hard plastic, and how to tell understeer from overbite. I admit having problems with all three.

Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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  • PrincipalDan PrincipalDan on Nov 17, 2011

    I'm saying manual also cause a computer can be tuned with an automatic trans for many purposes. I want to know about the action of that stick shift.

  • Bumpy ii Bumpy ii on Nov 17, 2011

    I'm going to be contrarian and say take the slushbox. Literally every single other publication will review the manual. Even a working class track hero like this will still sell more autos than sticks on this continent, so let's see how much effort the engineers put into that drivetrain combo.

  • CanadaCraig You can just imagine how quickly the tires are going to wear out on a 5,800 lbs AWD 2024 Dodge Charger.
  • Luke42 I tried FSD for a month in December 2022 on my Model Y and wasn’t impressed.The building-blocks were amazing but sum of the all of those amazing parts was about as useful as Honda Sensing in terms of reducing the driver’s workload.I have a list of fixes I need to see in Autopilot before I blow another $200 renting FSD. But I will try it for free for a month.I would love it if FSD v12 lived up to the hype and my mind were changed. But I have no reason to believe I might be wrong at this point, based on the reviews I’ve read so far. [shrug]. I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it once I get to test it.
  • FormerFF We bought three new and one used car last year, so we won't be visiting any showrooms this year unless a meteor hits one of them. Sorry to hear that Mini has terminated the manual transmission, a Mini could be a fun car to drive with a stick.It appears that 2025 is going to see a significant decrease in the number of models that can be had with a stick. The used car we bought is a Mk 7 GTI with a six speed manual, and my younger daughter and I are enjoying it quite a lot. We'll be hanging on to it for many years.
  • Oberkanone Where is the value here? Magna is assembling the vehicles. The IP is not novel. Just buy the IP at bankruptcy stage for next to nothing.
  • Jalop1991 what, no Turbo trim?
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