Hachi-Roku Thursday: Toyota Could Work With Porsche On Next Engine, Chief Engineer Says

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

The 86 is not on sale yet, and people are already swapping engines. In a virtual way at least. In hachi-roku forums people are discussing the merits of more horsepower than the stock 200hp. They also wonder aloud how much additional power the hachi-roku can safely take. “Go for it,” says hachi-roku Chief Engineer Tetsuya Tada:

“Some Americans already put a 5 liter engine in a Mazda roadster. There are fanclubs who want to do the same with our car. There is no rule to limit that. As manufacturers, we can’t do that. We have to give guarantees. We need to build cars that last. Tuners can try. We welcome that.”

“As it is, only highly skilled drivers can make full use of the stock engine. Some people may like to have a higher speed in the straightaway, but there are lots of other cars they can choose.”

Nevertheless, Tada leaves the door open to more factory power, with interesting partners:

“For our current engine, we cooperated with Subaru. Maybe we cooperate with Porsche or someone else next time. You can partner with anybody in the world these days.”

BMW for instance?

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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  • Hraefn Hraefn on Feb 02, 2012

    These images are begging for a Demotivational caption.

  • Corvair Corvair on Feb 02, 2012

    Maybe Toyota could help Porsche develop an engine that doesn't self destruct.

  • USAFMech USAFMech on Feb 03, 2012

    Goatse-roku? (For those not familiar, DO NOT GOOGLE GOATSE. You have been warned.)

  • Gingineer Gingineer on Feb 08, 2012

    I think Tada is a great dude since he seems passionate about making motorsports available to all, I was a little put off by his implication that Subaru only provided an engine. It is my understanding that Subaru in fact did most of the engineering (steering, suspension, engine, drivetrain, etc), and Toyota did the exterior design. Am I wrong?

    • Jruhi4 Jruhi4 on Feb 09, 2012

      No, you're not wrong at all, although Toyota also provided the D4S direct+port injection technology that helped the new Hachi-Roku achieve 100 hp-per-liter.

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