Images of Production Toyota FT-86 Leaked

November 18, 2011 at 11:07am by Jared Gall

Okay, we promise this is it. (There’s a good chance we break that promise.) Here, taken from an Italian website that apparently has good Japanese sources, are what appear to be two images of the Toyota FT-86’s actual, final, production sheetmetal—er, one image showing two views of the car. We will do our damnedest to make this the last time we report on the Toyota/Scion/Subaru rear-drive coupe until the official debut at the Tokyo auto show. That’s less than two weeks away; how many more opportunities could there really be?

After two years of concepts, design studies, chassis and drivetrain bucks, and spy shots, we can’t say there are any surprises in this photo. Squat bodywork, airy greenhouse, fairly simple design (we feared that last bit in particular after learning that Toyota penned the shape). It’s certainly less aggressive than the many concepts that preceded it, but it does seem to be doing a little flexing around the rear wheels, producing a bit of a bulge that flows into the trunklid. And really, as we learned on our recent drive of a camouflaged Subaru prototype, it drives well enough that it won’t matter what it looks like. Heck, the Mazda Miata looks like a sausage that someone stepped on, but that hasn’t stopped us from loving it.

You can check out the original post on the Italian website here, although we’ll tell you now there’s nothing more for you there unless you want to post comments in Italian. You’re welcome to do that here, too.

Tags: Scion, Subaru BRZ, Toyota FT-86 |

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2013 Cadillac XTS Leaked Ahead of L.A. Auto Show Debut

Last night, what appeared to be a production 2013 Cadillac XTS sedan appeared on Cadillac’s consumer website before quickly being taken down. A few hours later, Cadillac officially released the same photo and announced that the large sedan would debut at the L.A. auto show next week. We already knew the XTS would land in L.A., but the photo gives us our first look at the production version; until now we’ve seen only the show car, spy photos, and the new Caddy’s interior. Oh, and we tried out its new CUE infotainment system.

It appears as though the production XTS’s styling will deviate remarkably little from the concept’s—the car seen above sports the same chunky, cab-forward stance and heavy front-end styling as the show car, which now looks as though its body panels may have popped from production molds. The XTS is set to replace the slow-selling STS and the long-in-the-tooth DTS at the top of Cadillac’s lineup. The front-drive XTS rides on stretched Buick LaCrosse Epsilon II bones, and we expect it will be powered by the same 3.6-liter, direct-injection V-6 as is found in the CTS. Stay tuned for the XTS’s big reveal next week.

Tags: Cadillac, Cadillac XTS |

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