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Dubai claims debut of Toyota GT86 sedan concept

Typically, when the organizers of an auto show reveal that a new car will debut at their show, we take notice. But this particular claim from the Dubai International Motor Show ought to be taken with a grain of salt.
As our compatriots at AutoGuide discovered, the Facebook page for the Emirates auto expo includes a post with an interesting claim: that a sedan based on the Toyota GT86 (known in the US as the Scion FR-S) will debut at the show. The Facebook post is accompanied by the image above, purporting to show the concept in question.
The strange part is that the organizers claim the four-door GT86 concept will make its "regional unveil" at the Dubai show, which would seem to indicate that the concept in question would make its international debut at an earlier show. Considering that the doors open in Dubai on Tuesday, that seems increasingly unlikely. All of this begs the question, If this isn't actually a four-door GT86, what might it be?

Toyota GT86 convertible could debut in March

The dates are lining up, now we wait to see how the badges align. Just before the Toyota GT 86/Scion FR-S/Subaru BRZ line-up was introduced at the Tokyo Motor Show last year, there was a report that Subaru was considering a convertible while Toyota wouldn't even comment on it. That got swapped around when earlier this year the chief engineer on Toyota's side said a convertible was coming, and then a Scion FR-S droptop was confirmed for early 2014.
Autocar now reports that the Toyota GT 86 convertible will make its first appearance at the 2013 Geneva Motor Show in March. In a car whose specs like weight, packaging, horsepower and center of gravity were all tightly controlled to get the most from the least, the changes necessitated by chopping the roof could make this a very different car. It's said to employ a fabric roof to keep a "small" weight gain check, and the suspension will be softened to work more harmoniously with the decreased body stiffness. And somewhere in all that the back seat and trunk space will need to take a hit.
In other news, Autocar says the hi-po GT 86 with some kind of capacitor system instead of batteries is being worked on for 2015.

Toyota GT86 engineer Tada recounts how sports car came to be

Because the Toyota GT86, Scion FR-S and Subaru BRZ coupes are now a reality, it's almost hard to imagine the struggle that had to happen within the large, conservative corporate structures at both automakers for the joint project to even get off of the ground.
Speaking to those struggles on Toyota UK's Toyota Blog, GT86 Chief Engineer Tetsuya Tada enlightens us with a recap of the sports car's earliest origins. For Tada, the first stages of the project must have seemed almost as dreamlike as the final product is to drive.
Said the Chief, "I had been working in the minivan department engineering new product, but a month after the meeting I was summoned. 'Forget about minivans,' they said, 'you are now working on the sports-car project.'"