Toyota News: Chief Engineer for Toyota 86 Dreams Of A Dedicated Performance Brand, Successors to Iconic Sports Cars

[William Maley]

Tetsuya Tada, the man behind the Toyota 86 coupe (and sister models Subaru BRZ and Scion FR-S) has some dreams that he would like the Japanese brand to take on.

 

One thing Tada-san is adamant Toyota should do is launch a dedicated high-performance brand.

 

“BMW has its M Division, Mercedes-Benz has Mercedes-AMG, Audi has quattro GmbH, so they have a stance of a sports car, but Toyota hasn’t,” Tada-san told CarAdvice.

 

“So I would like to build that major sports car brand within Toyota, like BMW’s M.”

 

The closest thing Toyota has at the moment is their TRD (Toyota Racing Development) arm. But Tada points to Gazgoo Racing - the group behind the racing efforts of the Lexus LF-A and Toyota 86 - as a possibility to reach this goal.

 

“BMW and M and Audi and quattro GmbH used to be like the Toyota relationship with Gazoo – it wasn’t really one body, it was two separate things. But because of the time and the continuous effort, now they are together. So, I’m wishing that Toyota puts effort continuously, and then someday later, Toyota and Gazoo will be one body. The important thing is to keep putting in the effort and continue – never give up,” said Tada-san.

 

Tada-san is also working on encouraging Toyota to build more vehicles with passion - see the upcoming Lexus LC 500 as an example. He is very much aware of the ‘opportunity’ to build a flagship sports car - the rumored Supra.

 

“We’re putting all the effort into making it happen. There is so much gossip about it may be happening or it may be produced, but amongst Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC), much of the things people think, have already been tried. But trying [‘things’] and trying to reach production, are two different things. So, of the ideas from our team, maybe one tenth is the production car.”

 

Toyota and BMW currently have a partnership of developing various things, including a sports car platform. Rumor has it that next-generation BMW Z4 will share its platform with the Supra.

 

Finally, Tada-san revealed what he would like to do as a dream project.

 

“I would prefer a new Celica GT4 – turbo, four-wheel drive. [it’s a] really fun car and really fast. And [it was fast on] every type of road. [A new one is definitely] one of my dreams.”

 

Source: CarAdvice

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[G. David Felt]

This would go a long way to reduce their current image of just plain jane, boring reliable auto's. They need to move towards this sooner rather than later.

[Drew Dowdell]

Seriouslly... until you can actually build a new Celia and Supra... just stop with the extra performance brand...

 

And you ALREADY HAVE a performance brand, it's called TRD!!!

[smk4565]

I think they have forgotten how to build a performance car.  Even when you look at Lexus, the F-sport cars are mostly just trim packages with wheels and body moldings.  Their big gun engine in the GS F and RC F is a V 8 with 387 lb-ft of torque.  A 5 liter liter V8 with 460 or 470 hp whatever it makes is pretty awesome for a smaller car, or mid-level product, but that is their range topper.  When Cadillac and the Germans have near 600 hp and torque in cars.   It is a mystery to me why Lexus hasn't put turbos on the 3.5 V6 or the 5.0 V8 yet.   Even Fusions, Malibus and Sontas are turbocharged now, this isn't some exclusive high dollar technology.

 

A 1990s Toyota Supra turbo could do 0-60 in 4.6 seconds with a 13.1 second 1/4 mile.  20 years later a GS-F is 0-60 in 4.4 seconds with a 12.9 second 1/4 mile. They aren't much further ahead now than they were in the 90s.  And when you look at Toyota brand itself, they have nothing that could hold a candle to the 90s Supra in terms of performance.  

 

Toyota is more bean counter driven than GM is.  Every product they make is bland, boring, reliable transportation, their 2.4 liter and 3.5 liter engine have been around over a decade with little change.  They just want to milk basic powertrains in basic sedans and crossovers for as long as possible.

[ocnblu]

A Toyota Celica would sell much better than a Scion tC just on name alone.

[G. David Felt]

Seriouslly... until you can actually build a new Celia and Supra... just stop with the extra performance brand...

 

And you ALREADY HAVE a performance brand, it's called TRD!!!

Just realized, Toyota's Performance line is a turd. Wow, no wonder they want a new performance line.