This is slightly old news… but I’m in love so I’m going to write about it.

Toyota has a new concept car that traces its root back to the old AE-86 Trueno (we got it in the states as a Corolla), a cult-classic car made famous in Japan from an anime called Initial-D.  The car became popular because of its light weight, rear-wheel drive platform, and its cheapness.  It has become a popular choice for a drift car.

Fast forward almost 30 years and Toyota realizes all the cars it produces are bland appliance cars for old people.  They haven’t had a real flagship sports car since the Supra in 1997, so they want to inject a little excitement into the lineup.  Enter the FT-86.

Image courtesy of AutoBlog.com

The car is powered by a 2.0L Subaru boxer engine, sending all the power to the two rear wheels instead of the typical four that this engine usually drives.  I’m all for Toyota pepping up their lineup, even if the concept color was in fact inspired by a monkey’s cheeks.

This car has been confirmed in Gran Turismo 5 (not sure about Forza 3, but I hope it is) if you would like to get behind the wheel without dropping the dough.

I am very excited about this though and think it’s a step in the right direction for Toyota.  They have been catering to a select market for too long, and now that their reliability has been starting to go down the drain, the oldies aren’t going to flock to them like they used to.  I miss the old days of Toyota where their MR2′s and Supras reigned supreme.

Click the image to go to the entry from autoblog.com if you want more details.