Mar 12, 2018, 4:22pm ET

Toyota engineer: No turbocharged 86 without new platform

Chief engineer Tetsuya Tada says a turbocharger would throw off the 86\'s finely tuned weight balance.

A top Toyota engineer has outlined why, exactly, the company will not turbocharge the current 86 despite persistent rumors and plenty of pressure from enthusiasts.

Speaking to CarAdvice in Geneva, Toyota 86 chief engineer Tetsuya Tada said he gets "literally millions of questions from around the world" asking when the company will launch the turbo version.

"I believe that often times I answered that there won't be a turbo version, and there were some articles in the media that Mr Tada doesn't like a turbo," he said. "That's not really true. I do like turbos, however if we come up with a turbo version of the 86 and boost up the power that would result in the necessity of changing the basic configuration completely, to come up with a car that I would be satisfied with."

The issue centers around weight and balance, which would be thrown off if the Toyota 86 simply added a turbocharger without shedding an equivalent number of pounds from other front-end systems.

"One characteristic of the 86 is that in terms of the front balance its slightly front loaded so it makes the handling more fast and agile," Tada added. "So if we were to come up with a turbo version, we would have to go change the weight balance between the front and the rear."

Such changes are out of the question for the current generation, though the argument does not preclude a turbocharged successor to the current model.