Scion’s FR-S (and the car’s Subaru BRZ and Toyota GT 86 cousins) was launched on the market with great fanfare back in 2012 but since then sales have fizzled, with Scion managing to move just a thousand of the cars in April, down 29 percent on levels a year ago. The lack of sales has led to Toyota ruling out additional variants of the car, but it appears a planned mid-cycle update will still go ahead.

According to Motoring, the FR-S will have a shelf life of about eight years, which means we can expect the car’s mid-cycle update to coincide with the 2017 model year. The Australian publication reports that among the planned changes is more aggressive styling around the front section and extra horsepower under the hood.

However, before you get too excited note that only a slight bump in power is expected. The current 200-horsepower rating of the FR-S is expected to be increased to around 208 hp only. Torque is also expected to be up beyond the current model’s 151-foot-pound rating. The gains will be brought about by a new intake manifold and new internals aimed at reducing engine friction. A further benefit of the upgrades should be improved fuel economy.

There will be some chassis mods, too, with the engineers reportedly adopting changes made by Toyota motorsport partner Gazoo Racing for its recent string of FR-S-based concept cars. One of the upgrades is said to be a reinforced rear suspension subframe to improve rear-end rigidity.

Importantly, the changes will also feature on the Subaru BRZ and Toyota GT 86.

Stay tuned for an update.

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