• Low-slung driving position promotes engagement
• Very supportive seats – if you’re on the slimmer side
• Cabin is well made but doesn’t feel special

The first thing you notice when you slide into the Toyota GT86 is just how low the driving position is. This is a deliberate effort to make the driving experience more rewarding, and also lowering the car’s centre of gravity as much as possible.

Its seats have been designed to provide optimum support during hard acceleration, braking and cornering yet Toyota also claims this is a car you can drive long distances in comfort. Those wider of hips may feel they pinch a little, though.

Each of the controls is laid out perfectly for sporty driving. The gear lever is placed brilliantly, the steering wheel small enough to elicit accurate and quick inputs, and the pedals are beautifully spaced for those who like to jockey those as well as the hand controls.

The materials used in the cabin are of a good quality, and feel particularly hard-wearing, but there’s little in the way of tactile delight from the dashboard or switchgear. Operating the multimedia touchscreen along a bumpy road can prove particularly troublesome.

• Modestly-sized wheels promote comfort
• Front seats occupants have decent space
• It’s very tight in the back, though

Comfort is surprisingly prevalent with the Toyota GT86. Those front seats are supportive and most people feel ensconced within them, and it actually rides fairly well for a car of this type.

That’s in part because the 17-inch alloy wheels are relatively small by today’s standard, allowing for a much greater degree of damping compliance and travel to be engineered into the GT86’s suspension arrangement.

Road and wind noise are well suppressed in spite of the doors’ frameless windows, and the only noise you hear from the tyres is a little chirp when they begin to lose traction.

Climate control effectively cools and heats the cabin effectively, but smaller adults and children relegated to the scalloped rear seats aren’t going to be impressed by the lack of head and legroom.