2024 Toyota GR86 Trueno Edition Tips Its Hat to Initial D Subculture

• Toyota is revamping its Gazoo Racing (GR) lineup for 2024, and the GR86 gets major upgrades plus a new limited edition trim.

• Known as the GR86 Trueno Edition, Toyota is honoring its AE86 Corolla Sport GT-S liftback, known as the Sprinter Trueno in Japan, with key performance upgrades.

• Bigger brakes, ZF Sachs dampers, and 18-inch wheels make up the mechanical differences while a Trueno visuals package gives this GR86 an Initial D look.

A good sports car doesn't have to be complex. The conventional wisdom as it relates to canyon carving (or your region's driving geography of choice) is that an eager chassis, sharp steering, and biting brakes are all you need—horsepower be damned.

This enthusiast ethos has been popularized (or immortalized depending on whom you ask) by Shuichi Shigeno's infamous, 55-million copies sold manga known as Initial D.

Blending fictional characters with real-life Japanese street racing, touge drifting, and tofu delivering, the craze surrounding Initial D has spawned over a dozen TV series, movies, and arcade games, in addition to its hundreds of thousands of fans worldwide. And beyond fandom for characters like Takumi Fujiwara, the real stars of the show were the cars, specifically the 1984-1987 Corolla Sport GT-S liftback, or Sprinter Trueno as it was known in Japan.

Now, in honoring the principles of sports car ownership, Toyota is revamping its GR86 with a Trueno badge and some performance upgrades to boot for 2024. Officially launched as the 2024 Toyota GR86 Trueno Edition, the company is explicitly tipping its hat to the subculture that supported the brand's often strange but always revered 20th-century performance vehicle programs. And Toyota even got the paint job right too!