What chance Toyota's street racer could replace its predecessor in local motorsport. And how long is here for, anyway?

GAZOO Racing influences have influenced the latest 86 coupe but no word from Toyota here about whether it prove that mettle by taking it onto the track.

Announcement of the new coupe coming on sale in October in common specification six-speed manual and six-speed automatic formats, with a 174kW/250Nm 2.4-litre boxer four-cylinder engine, either for $56,990, came from Toyota New Zealand today.

The Palmerston North operator has since revealed the car will be a rare sight, with just 10 examples apparently being made available to customers this year, with a reply to emailed questions saying: “The GR86 has limited availability this year of 10 units, however customers are able to place an order for a vehicle at their local Toyota Store, and they will be advised if it will be delivered this year or next.”

Questions were also put to the national distributor about whether the new model will ultimately succeed the old car in the distributor’s strongly-supported GR 86 racing programme.

The gateway series is already confirmed for this summer’s national championship, which will be the 10th consecutive year of racing for the first-generation model. The field’s most recent outing being the weekend’s final Supercars meeting at Pukekohe.

Andrew Davis, whose responsibilities include being the brand’s motorsport manager, responded by saying: “For all categories when a new model is produced you have to consider relevance, however we don’t have anything to announce at this stage. I am looking forward to what looks like the biggest field for the 86 championships in 2023.”

TNZ has remained silent on prospect the new 86 might be a short duration offer, due to its high CO2 count causing issues for availability in bigger right-hand drive markets.

The United Kingdom has already indicated it will drop the model in 2025, as it will be too expensive to keep.

At present, new cars with emissions about 192 grams per kilometre are hit by Clean Car penalties.

The GR 86 appears to fall into that category; on the WLTP measurement – which is slightly more lenient than the WLTP3 scale created by NZ authorities – it makes 199g/km in manual and 200g/km in automatic.

From January 1, distributors will start to feel impact from the next stage of the Government’s emissions strategy, the Clean Car Standard, which sets a steep sinking lid on allowable emissions for every year following, with a review after 2025.

From next year, an importer's car and SUV fleet will need to have average CO2 emissions no greater than 145g/km. Light commercial vehicles – vans and utes – will have their average emissions capped at 218.3g/km.

TNZ has already committed to meeting Government’s target and has said it will restrict availability of some high emissions vehicles if it has to.

In its media package today, TNZ specifically highlighted how the new car has been meted a Gazoo Racing makeover, with a larger and more powerful engine, improved torsion rigidity, precision handling and an updated interior.

The closest equivalent to the new GR 86 in the original line-up would have likely been the GT, a $46,986 car when it launched.