Cult of 86

You'd be forgiven for thinking the Festival of 86 celebrates John Farnham's 'You're the voice' or Wa Wa Nee's 'Stimulation'.

But many of the attendees at this particular festival weren't even born in 1986, so it's unlikely many of them are fans of these chart-topping, bee-bopping hits.

The Festival of 86 is in fact a performance car enthusiast's wet-dream -- a place full of rear-drive Toyota sports cars (and a few cheeky Subaru BRZs!), heritage rally vehicles, drifting displays, videogame simulations, hot laps on the race track and generally good times. And what would a festival be without gourmet food trucks?

It's the third time the Festival of 86 has been held in Australia. This year's event took place at Canberra's Sutton Driver Training centre and was highlighted by the global reveal of the 86 Shooting Brake Concept, which was conceived here in Australia.

Away from the hundreds of Toyota 86s parked at the festival -- the majority of them customised -- there was a big queue for one Tetsuya Tada, who was eagerly signing T-shirts and posing for photos. Toyota's chief sports car engineer, he is credited with developing the current 86, the resurrected Supra and a third sports car, likely the pint-sized S-FR.

Modest, affable and above all passionate about sports cars, Tada says Toyota's new-found hunger for fast, fun cars like the 86 is largely due to company president Akio Toyoda.

"Without having Akio's decision, no one was allowed to develop a sports car," explained Tada. "The sales department, because it's not profitable, always cancelled the idea.

"Because Akio in 2007 was deputy president, top of the sales division, he had the ability to make it happen. He said it [profit] doesn't matter for this one, we have to go back to the sports car, to the heritage. So you can tell how much passion Akio has for the sports car," said Tada.

Indeed, the passion of owners resonates strongly at the Festival of 86 and the compact coupe has become a beacon for the brand, which as a result is starting to shrug off its bland, beige, cardigan image of the early 2000s.

Tada says events like the Festival of 86 are crucial to nurturing passion, but admits that young people today struggle to rationalise the idea of car ownership.

"Today youngsters especially in Japan are not really interested in cars, due to the bad economy and costing too much. And they don't have so much passion for cars.

"So Toyota thought, how can we address this? Without making sports cars you don't have driver passion.

"So they realised that sports cars engender loyalty, and it doesn't really matter if it's successful profit wise. Toyota decided to make the [sports] car and bring people's interest back to cars."

With about 16,000 Toyota 86s sold in Australia, making this country the third highest-selling market for the rear-drive coupe (after the USA and Japan), the 86 has been a global success for the brand.

By bringing affordable, engaging driving to the masses, it's also found a sweet spot among younger Australian car buyers.

The sense of community and enthusiasm we saw at the Festival of 86 matched that of much bigger automotive brand gatherings we've experienced, such as the NISMO Festival in Japan. OK, so there were no race queens, but the 86 event has all the makings of a must-see event in future.

And who knows how it will grow given the right kind of nurturing? If Tada gets his way, perhaps it'll become the 'Toyota Festival' once more models join the Japanese brand's sports car family.

"In the future -- not the near future -- if Toyota can produce the two more sports car brothers ... the 86 is the major part, [but] two more cars will come.

"Three brothers in the sports division will be great!"

Racecar and road car go back to back on the track