It was a weekend of 10th anniversaries down in Cromwell recently, with the 10th annual Toyota Festival being held at the 10-year-old Highlands Motorsport Park (yes, it's been around for 10 whole years now!) featuring a 10th Anniversary special edition model of the GR 86.
David Linklater was down at the festival when the last episode of Zooming with DRIVEN was filmed, so in this bite Dean tells Damien and Sam about it all, including the reveal of both the special edition GR 86 and the long-awaited Hilux GR Sport.
The GR Sport Hilux is most definitely not a full-on GR model, nor a Ford Ranger Raptor rival, rather it is based on the SR5 Cruiser and is part of Gazoo Racing's third-tier lineup (below GRMN and GR models such as Yaris, Corolla and 86) that feature measured performance and styling enhancements, without being specialist/extreme machines.
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The familiar 2.8-litre turbo-diesel engine has had power and torque boosted by 10 per cent, to 165kW/550Nm, courtesy of a revised turbocharger and fuel-injection control, while the chassis features an automatic limited-slip differential, Active Traction Control and strengthened suspension, along with new monotube shock absorbers.
Meanwhile, the special edition 10th anniversary version of the GR 86 boasts a special Solar Shift Orange exterior finish, orange stitching inside and anniversary logos embroidered on the door trims and is extremely limited: Toyota NZ has only been allocated 10 examples to sell here.
We'll have a full story on the Toyota Festival soon, but you can read about the reveal of the Hilux and GR 86 here and watch the full episode of Zooming with DRIVEN here.
And don't forget to check out more DRIVEN videos on our YouTube channel or subscribe to the Zooming with DRIVEN podcast if you would rather listen to us!