If You're Too Tall For The Mazda Miata Try Toyota’s GR86

One of the most interesting things the Car Talk vehicle team has learned from decades of testing sports cars is that some of the very best ones are also the most affordable. If your aunt Birkett just passed and left you a pallet of Benjamins, don’t let us talk you out of a Jaguar F-type or Maserati GranTurismo. Those cars are every bit as good as the hot shots over at Road and Driver make them out to be. However, the secret you don't often hear from many of these publications is that you can buy a vehicle that is just as enjoyable for a fraction of the price.

The go-to best car for grand touring, back-roads blasting, or track day is the Mazda Miata. The Miata is so fun we would suggest it to anyone looking for a world-class sports car. In fact, Car Talk staffers have owned Miatas and hope to do so again someday. As the old saying goes, “If the question is sports car related, Miata is always the answer.”

There is just one thing that keeps the Miata from being the sports car solution for everyone - it’s not large enough for many big and tall drivers to fit into. As a person who is now six feet tall and a skosh over 200 pounds, I can tell you that is pretty much the limit. Any taller, and you spend your drive staring into the windshield header. Any wider and your torso ends up conforming to the door panel. Luckily, Toyota has a lovely solution.

The Toyota GR86 is a sports car that offers the same great driving experience as the Mazda Miata but is meaningfully bigger on the inside. The spec sheet doesn’t offer any clues to this fact. The GR86 is just a half-inch bigger here or an inch and a half there, but it adds up to an important size difference when you are the driver.

The GR86 is a fun and affordable sports car that comes complete with all of the things a great sports car should have. Let’s run down a quick list of the things people look for in a great sports car.

• Rear wheel drive
• Short-throw, snickety-snick six-speed manual transmission
• Willing engine
• Corner-hugging suspension
• Brakes that feel like the hand of Gawd
• Traction control that can be turned off
• A limited-slip differential
• Dual exhaust with that soul-pleasing back-burble
• A supportive seat four inches off the pavement
• Sleek and gorgeous body with more curves than a 1950s Coke bottle
• Rear spoiler

The Toyota GR86 checks off each and every one of the boxes on our list of must-haves for a sports car. And it offers so much more. For example, it’s a Toyota, so it’s unlikely ever to break. It offers Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, so you can go get lost on purpose and then find your way home. It has pretend back seats perfect for fooling your insurance company into thinking the GR86 isn’t a death sled. There is even a trunk so that you can use the GR86 for weekend getaways or beach days.

The GR86 isn’t a car that lends itself to everyday use, like a Civic. For that reason, Toyota needed a production partner to make the math less frightening to the bean counters. Subaru stepped up and donated the engine. It’s a horizontally-opposed flat four-cylinder unit with 228 hp. When started, this engine has the vibe of a lab puppy pulling into the dog run parking lot. It wants to play. It wants to get you into trouble. You should let it.

Car Talk’s very own automotive journalist Chris Teague sums up the GR86 by saying, “The 86 is a car that begs to be driven hard, and it's one of few "affordable" models that offer the ideal enthusiast formula.”

The GR86 can smoke its tires from a standstill if you let it. Wind it out to the redline in third gear, and you are already in “please arrest me” territory on most streets. The engine is remarkable in that it pulls from the get-go and then straight up to its redline without dead spots, and you don't have to wait till 5,000 RPMs for the fun to start.

Best of all, the GR86 is a joy to drive at legal speeds. This has been the Miata’s secret formula for decades. Corvettes are great, but not on public roads where 90% of their capabilities are never explored. When you are driving a GR86 at speeds that won’t get you pulled over by the local constable, it is still a fun experience.

How Big Can You Be and Still Fit In a Toyota GR86?

Aaron Turpen, one of Car Talk’s tallest testers, says that “Even at 6-foot, 3 inches, I fit within the GR86 without much trouble.” Our friend, George Kennedy of CarGurus, says the GR86 is a very livable car, even for tall drivers. “I'm six-foot-three, and it's easy to climb in and out, as well as find a comfortable driving position.”

Ray Magliozzi sums it up best, saying, “The GR86 is more of a car you could live with every day. It’s a step up in comfort from the Miata.”

The Toyota GR86 has a sticker price starting at a smidge under $30K. We recently tested the “Premium” version with all the doo-dads and add-ons, and the price was still under $35K. That is less than half of what you need to pay to bring home a European-branded sports car.