You’ll Soon Be Able To Buy A Yellow Toyota GR86 And It’s A Love Letter To Scion

Over the past few years, the internet’s developed an obsession with spec. Colors, options, little touches that make a car more interesting than it would be in black-on-black. We’ve slowly seen automakers start to incorporate deep greens and even the odd purple back into their lineups, but it feels like we’re only getting started. Later this year, Toyota will sell you a GR86 in yellow, and my god, is it ever good.

Specifically, Toyota reached into its back catalog of colors and pulled out the vivid Yuzu instead of say, the pearl-heavy Flare Yellow or the slightly cool Solar Yellow. It’s a great shade, especially considering how Yuzu is a color with some neat history regarding these cars.

Remember how Scion used to do Release Series models in special colors with a few odds-and-ends added? Well, at the 2014 New York Auto Show, Scion unveiled a limited 1,500-car run of Yuzu Yellow FR-S coupes with TRD body kits, TRD springs, a quad-tip exhaust system, a TRD steering wheel and shift knob, and all the luxury sundries normally only available on the Subaru BRZ. The resulting FR-S Release Series 1.0 was a pretty hot car, so it’s great to see this treatment revived more than a decade later.

Scion Fr S Rs1 001 — Photo credit: Scion

However, lots of bits that seem to make this special edition such a throwback appear to be optional. The TRD body kit is an accessory, and the quad-tip exhaust system is an accessory, so you really just end up getting a loaded-up GR86 with yellow paint, yellow perforated upholstery, and yellow stitching. Then again, the body kit isn’t going to be to everyone’s taste, and the goodies you do get as standard are pretty nice.

2026 Toyota Gr86 Se Yuzu 013 — Photo credit: Toyota

When I write that this thing comes loaded, I mean including the Performance Package that bundles Sachs dampers with Brembo brakes. While the ride quality is going to be on the stiff side, judging from experience with the similarly equipped Trueno Edition, the brakes look wicked, should hold up well to track use, and accommodate a wide variety of pad compounds.

2026 Toyota Gr86 Se Yuzu 020 — Photo credit: Toyota

Plus, the 228-horsepower flat-four now comes with tweaked, more linear throttle mapping that Toyota claims will make rev-matched downshifts easier. I can’t wait to try it in the real world considering the calibration of earlier GR86s was a bit unrefined at low engine speeds, and a six-speed manual is really the right choice over the optional six-speed automatic.

2026 Toyota Gr86 Se Yuzu 003 — Photo credit: Toyota

It’s interesting to see Toyota roll out a yellow GR86 considering Subaru’s offering a purple BRZ. Two complimentary colors for two slightly different versions of the same car, although I definitely prefer the BRZ Series.Purple’s silver wheels to the GR86 Yuzu Special Edition’s black rollers. At the same time, Toyota went so much harder with the interior that slapping on your favorite set of aftermarket wheels seems like a good way of creating the perfect Gen 2 twin.

2026 Toyota Gr86 Se Yuzu 005 — Photo credit: Toyota

If you want a GR86 in the best color, Toyota’s only making 860 U.S.-market examples in this vibrant Yuzu hue, and they aren’t expected to roll into showrooms until the autumn. It should be worth the wait, because the world really needs more yellow sports cars to give everyone something to dream about.

Top graphic credit: Toyota

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