Towards the end of last year, we saw the reveal of the long-awaited and heavily revised Subaru BRZ, but its twin from Toyota was notably absent. The rumor doing the rounds was that the 86 was being intentionally delayed so that it could be launched as a better car than the BRZ. That theory went out the window when the two brands announced that they would be releasing a new car together, a car that we now know is the new Toyota GR 86. We already knew that it would be similar to the BRZ thanks to a leaked image of its bumper, but now that we've been shown both cars very close to their production spec, the differences are truly minimal.

The above side-by-side image of the front of both cars really highlights how similar the new GR 86 is to the Subaru BRZ, just as the two cars' predecessors were all but identical to each other. The headlights are the same shape but feature slightly different LED running light designs. On the BRZ, the DRL runs almost all the way around the border of the headlight while on the GR 86, it halts at the highest point. The bigger change is in the bumper, where Toyota has styled the car to look considerably more aggressive than the BRZ. A flat, wide grille with sharp vents on either side helps the 86 look far more sporty than the slightly surprised-looking BRZ.

After you move past the bumper, pretty much everything looks the same. On the Toyota, the mirror caps are gloss black, but the shape of the mirrors, the double-bubble roof, the glasshouse, the fenders with their vents, the skirts, and the doors are all identical between the two models. Even the wheels look like copies of each other, but what about the rear of the car?

It appears that the Toyota's taillights are a little more tinted, but this could also be an illusion caused by the lighting, as both cars feature black accents around the tails, identical faux diffusers, and the same exhaust system. If we had to say, it seems that the central brake light is slightly different, but again, this could be an optical illusion.

Inside, the same design follows, whether you're looking under the hood or in the cabin. The only difference we can see from the press photos is that Toyota's images show a central infotainment screen while Subaru's images show a cover in that spot, although this could be manually retractable. Either way, again, the BRZ's design and layout are mirrored in the 86. Sadly, we don't have any information on launch colors, pricing, performance, or pretty much anything else.

In fact, Toyota implies that these pics aren't necessarily exactly what we'll see when the production spec is revealed, and this could explain some of the subtle differences we see in the images. Until we have both US-spec, production versions alongside each other, you'll just have to look at each car and choose which you think looks better. Beyond that, we'll just have to wait.