MID-MOUNTED MATTERS

With a midship 2-litre engine, does this Yaris-based concept and race car hint at an upcoming MR2? And what else does Toyota Gazoo Racing have in store for us? We find out

- by ETHAN JUPP

STUTTERING SALES CHARTS, SPIRALLING COSTS, tightening emissions targets and dissonant regulatory decrees punctuate gloomy skies over the car industry at the moment. At the eye of the storm always and the first to get the guillotine when times are tough are the performance cars we know and love.

But beams of golden sunshine can be seen cutting through. One comes courtesy of Toyota Gazoo Racing, the performance car and motorsport operation with the total and unconditional backing of Akio Toyoda, the former president and current chairman of Toyota Motor Corporation. It’s the kind of backing that helped Toyota Gazoo Racing be crowned World Champions in the WRC, WEC and Rally Raid in 2024, and also the kind of backing that has Bart Eelen, Toyota long-timer and TGR's newly promoted head of product and marketing, in an optimistic spirit when we meet him at Toyota's Kenshiki Forum showcase event.

‘I think sometimes it feels like the end of the road for sports cars and people who love sports cars,’ he says. ‘But I think we're very much committed to making sure this kind of heritage persists. We will definitely be part of that movement.’

Indeed there’s been plenty of furore over the last few months around exactly what Toyota Gazoo Racing has planned. If you believe the more sensationalist headlines, this time next year Toyota showrooms will be wall-to-wall with Supras, MR2s and Celicas. Eelen isn’t letting too many cats out of the bag, but with the A90 Final Edition of the Supra in attendance, he does confirm that Toyota's flagship sports car will get a successor: ‘Supra is definitely a part of the picture going forward. We call the car here the A90 Final Edition, not the Supra Final Edition. The name will live on; there will be, somewhere in the future, a new Supra.’