Scion FR-S Concept leaks ahead of New York unveiling

13 years ago - 20 April 2011
Scion FR-S Concept leaks ahead of New York unveiling
The Toyota FT-86 is continuing its long, painful march towards production at the 2011 New York Auto Show. As previously rumored, the rear-wheel drive wonder may sail under the Scion badge if and when it actually shows up on dealer lots, at least that's what Toyota seems to be hinting at with this latest concept car.

Photos of the Scion-badged FR-S Concept have leaked their way to the interwebs ahead of the vehicle's debut later today. From the looks of things, the newest concept is a slightly more subdued version of the FT-86 II Concept we saw under the lights at Geneva. Those ridiculous LED accents have been stripped from the nose and the front fascia no longer looks as if it were lifted from the Buddy Club catalog. (Note to Toyota: We would have been perfectly happy seeing the original concept on the road as a production model.)

Unfortunately, there still appears to be an awful lot of concept floating around this machine. Note the ridiculously large wheels, bizarre door handle placement, miniscule side mirrors and Transformer-inspired rear valance. Given that entire star systems have been born, flourished and imploded on themselves since the FT-86 first bowed at the Tokyo Motor Show way back in 2009, we can only stand so many more concept unveils before we write this car off as all smoke and mirrors. That, or by the time the production car finally goes on sale, perhaps it'll arrive at dealers with a mid-cycle refresh.