The 2027 Toyota GR86 is on sale in Canada with a starting manufacturer’s suggested retail price of $33,400. The updates for this model year are narrow and specific rather than sweeping, and the most telling of them measures about half a millimetre.
Toyota’s GAZOO Racing team widened the chamfer on the shifter interlock between fourth and fifth gear by roughly 0.5 mm. On paper that is nothing. In the hand it changes how the lever finds the gate, drawing the shifter into position instead of requiring the driver to place it. It is a good illustration of where the engineering effort went this year.
Throttle and shifter
The other controllability change is to throttle calibration. Engineers reworked the relationship between accelerator input and torque delivery to produce a smoother, more linear response, and refined the feel of the fifth-to-fourth downshift. Toyota says track testing drove these revisions, with laps used to sharpen response and feel.
Neither change alters the output. The naturally aspirated 2.4-litre FA-24 flat-four still produces 228 horsepower and 184 lb-ft of torque, with peak torque arriving at 3,700 rpm. A Torsen limited-slip rear differential remains, as does the six-speed manual, along with a Track mode and the ability to switch off vehicle stability control outright.
- Advertisement -
The six-speed automatic uses additional clutch discs and a high-capacity torque converter to handle the engine’s output, and adds steering-wheel paddles plus Normal, Sport and Snow modes. In Sport, the transmission reads brake and accelerator use along with vehicle behaviour to pick a gear on its own.
Still built around being light
The GR86 remains one of the lightest cars Toyota develops. The base manual weighs 1,275 kg and the automatic 1,293 kg, held down by an aluminum hood, front fenders and roof panel, structural adhesives in the frame, and seats more than three kilograms lighter than those in the previous-generation 86.
That number is the whole argument for this car. In a market where performance is increasingly delivered by adding power to heavy platforms, a 2+2 rear-wheel-drive coupe under 1,300 kg with 228 hp is making a different case, and the mass figure is what makes it.
Colours, cabin and driver aids
Thunder joins the palette for 2027, a solid grey that shifts with the light across the car’s sculpted panels. Inside, Premium grades can be specified with a new Cockpit Red interior pairing black Ultrasuede with red leather on the side bolsters, plus red floor mats and door accents. An all-black treatment with black Ultrasuede, black leather-trimmed upholstery and black stitching remains available, and Premium models get a cast iron black finish on the switches, knobs and shifter.
On the safety side, the stereo camera’s recognition range has been nearly doubled to better detect vehicles ahead when cruise control is active, and a monocular camera has been added to help spot objects at intersections. Toyota’s Active Safety Suite is standard across the range, including pre-collision braking, pre-collision throttle management, adaptive cruise control and lead vehicle start alert.
- Advertisement -
“The GR86 is the product of the skill and expertise of our GAZOO Racing team, earned on the world’s top racing and rallying circuits,” said Steve Pilkey, vice-president of Toyota Canada, describing the result as track-ready but usable day to day.
What it means for Canadian buyers
At $33,400 to start, the GR86 sits in a segment that has largely emptied out. The updates for 2027 will not persuade anyone to trade in a recent example — a reshaped shifter gate and revised throttle mapping are refinements to a car that already worked.
They matter more to a first-time buyer, because they address the two controls a driver touches constantly. The expanded camera coverage is the quieter improvement, and arguably the more useful one for a car likely to spend most of its life commuting rather than lapping.
- Advertisement -
Worth confirming at the dealer: the $33,400 figure is a starting price before freight, delivery and the taxes that vary by province, and the Cockpit Red interior is tied to Premium grades rather than offered across the range.
Reporting based on information published by Toyota.
