FUJI 86/BRZ STYLE, the annual gathering for Toyota 86/GR86 and Subaru BRZ owners, ran at Fuji Speedway on September 12 in wet weather. The event's most consequential moment came during a 40-minute GR × SUBARU talk show.
Best Car Web reported that the developers signaled they still have more they want to explore with the current-generation cars, and emphasized their continuing work to refine them. Best Car Web frames this as a response to speculation that had been circulating online about a next-generation model.
What the developers said — and what they did not
Best Car Web summarizes the developers' position in the reporter's own words rather than quoting a named individual at length, and it does not report the developers confirming or denying any specific technical claim about a future car — no engine details, no powertrain layout, and no indication of which company would lead development. What the report does support is a continued focus on refining the current-generation cars.
Plenty has been written online about what a next GR86 and BRZ might be. None of it came from this stage, and those reports should not be presented as claims made by the developers at this event.
Per Toyota GAZOO Racing's published event program, the session featured GR86 chief engineer Naoyuki Sakamoto, Masaaki Kobayashi, the BRZ's project general manager at Subaru, and GR86 development driver Kazuya Oshima. The same program lists Masahiro Sasaki, Oshima and Toshiki Oyu for the "THE FR" drift recreation, which put three generations of the Toyota 86 on track together.
For readers who followed GR's plans for this year's event, the talk show is the substantive addition: people directly involved in developing the cars saying in public that the current generation still has room for further development. The session provided no confirmed details about a successor, however, so reports about the next generation remain speculation.