Has anyone seen how successful Chevrolet is in pitching the reinvented Corvette as a mid-engine wonder trick for 'America's sports car?' And people are even thinking about it as a Ferrari killer of some sort!
Sure, the new Corvette first established itself as a great mid-engine sports car package that was both affordable (at least in the beginning, that is) and feisty in 495-hp Stingray Z51 form. Then, after the engineers had confirmation that they had struck gold, it was time for the dual supercar blow – the 670-hp record-breaking FPC V8 Corvette Z06 and the newly minted 655-hp, eAWD-equipped Corvette E-Ray.
Interestingly, one rivaling automaker apparently keeps an eye on everything that moves across the American automotive market – Toyota. The company has been pushing a tidal wave of novelties since the start of 2023, and they are not slowing down anytime soon after they reintroduced the beloved 2024 Land Cruiser to the US market.
According to the rumor mill, they are mulling other comebacks – such as a Stout revival to rock the world of unibody compact pickup trucks and fight the Ford Maverick plus Hyundai Santa Cruz or a compact body-on-frame SUV based on the J250 series (2024 Land Cruiser and Lexus GX 550) as a spiritual successor to the quirky yet popular FJ Cruiser off-road SUV.
Now, an even wackier idea has crossed the parallel universes of automotive reports – Toyota might even consider a comeback for the MR2 mid-engine RWD sports car that was produced for model years 1985-2007! Probably, if they saw Chevrolet do it like professionals with the Corvette, they also think they could turn into some sort of Porsche (718-series) killers, right?
Well, at least the imaginative realm of digital car content creators is always eager to support such exciting visions. The Halo oto channel on YouTube always provides fresh automotive info corroborated with their virtual designs; now, there are also some CGI ideas about that rumored Toyota MR2 revival.
According to the channel's host, this 2026 MR2 might be exclusive to the Japanese domestic market, and by the looks of the unofficial design penned by the resident pixel master, it's ready to blend nostalgic design cues with modern styling traits in a package that could rival the Porsche 718 Cayman in terms of performance and maybe even pricing.
Of course, there are also some powertrain ideas – both the GR Yaris and GR Corolla will lend their inline-three-cylinder turbo mill to the hypothetical 2026 MR2 because Toyota is allegedly giving it a pure gasoline revival. However, it's interesting to note that the G16E-GTS has two outputs – 268 hp for the GR Yaris pocket rocket and 300 hp for the GR Corolla hot hatchback.
As such, no one says the engineers couldn't massage the compact powertrain and squeeze some additional bang and blow to rival the current Cayman and Boxster and the more powerful S and GTS variants. However, do take all this with a grain of salt, as nothing is official just yet from Toyota!
Aurel has aimed high all his life (literally, at 16 he was flying gliders all by himself) so in 2006 he switched careers and got hired as a writer at his favorite magazine. Since then, his work has been published both by print and online outlets, most recently right here, on autoevolution. Full profile
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