With its low-slung proportions and rear-wheel propulsion, few will dispute that the Toyota 86 is a machine designed for serious motoring pleasure.
Except for when the conversation turns to performance. This is even more of an issue for Gauteng drivers, with the altitude factor robbing it of a good 20kW.
Toyota has yet to come up with a force-fed 86 for its performance hungry customers, but one of South Africa's major tuning houses has just steeped in with a supercharged solution. At a price.
For R75 000, RGMotorsport in Randburg, Gauteng, will install a bolt-on supercharging package and for another R9950 they'll throw in a Techniflow cat-free stainless steel exhaust.
Blowing a blizzard into the Toyota's 2-litre 147kW boxer motor is a Vortech V-3 H67BC centrifugal supercharger designed specifically for this engine.
Verified figures are not available at present, but RGM estimates a power output of around 210kW, of which you won't lose too much at altitude.
No internal changes have been made to the motor and it still runs the standard 12.5:1 compression ratio. This is enabled by an integrated air-to-air intercooler and an oversized cooler core to keep its hot heart as chilled as possible.
Watch this space for more info as it becomes available.