Photo: Calty Design/Toyota
With Toyota’s small cheap sportscars deceased for quite some time, the company is poised to revive the past. It started with the GT 86 a couple years ago, there’s a bigger brother on the way which is supposed to be the modern interpretation of the Supra and it seems that a smaller sportscar will make its way up the market at some point.
Rumors about a sub-GT 86 sportscar go for quite some time, with chief engineer Tetsuya Tada admitting Toyota should have a three-sportscar lineup, and now, according to Motoring, some new details about the missing small car have surfaced.
According to their sources, the small Toyota sportscar will be underpinned by an in-house developed new front-engined rear-wheel drive platform. Toyota New Global Architecture anyone? At least Toyota was saying the new unified platform will turn its cars more fun to drive.
Unlike the MR2, from which it borrows the dimensions, the new sportscar will come with four seats and adopt a Volkswagen Scirocco-like shape, being something between a coupe and a hatchback. Even cooler is the fact that it will weigh under 1,000 kg (2,205 lb), making it an interesting opponent for Mazda’s upcoming MX-5.
Power is said to come from a naturally aspirated 1.5-liter 2NR-FE engine using the Atkinson cycle and all that VVT-i wizardry to put out around 100 kW (136 hp) and 145 Nm (107 lb-ft) of torque.
They said we should expect to see the concept at the 2015 Tokyo Motor Show, probably entering production in late 2017 and come with a price of under $20,000.
So far so good, but we’d have a little suggestion. The GT 86 has a wheelbase of 2,570 mm and its rear seats are almost useless when coming to legroom. According to the report, the small sportscar will have a wheelbase of around 2,400 mm and they also want to make it a 2+2 coupe.
Please don’t. Leave it a 2-seater car and make a worthy MX-5 alternative. What's the point in having two absolutely useless rear seats to drag around for nothing? Just leave the space open to recline the front seats correctly or store some things there. It's frustratingly painful to see those mini-seats there taking up space just because a "2+2 coupe" sounds cool and gives you a soothing idea that you can fit 2 people in the back... if they have had both legs amputated.
According to their sources, the small Toyota sportscar will be underpinned by an in-house developed new front-engined rear-wheel drive platform. Toyota New Global Architecture anyone? At least Toyota was saying the new unified platform will turn its cars more fun to drive.
Unlike the MR2, from which it borrows the dimensions, the new sportscar will come with four seats and adopt a Volkswagen Scirocco-like shape, being something between a coupe and a hatchback. Even cooler is the fact that it will weigh under 1,000 kg (2,205 lb), making it an interesting opponent for Mazda’s upcoming MX-5.
Power is said to come from a naturally aspirated 1.5-liter 2NR-FE engine using the Atkinson cycle and all that VVT-i wizardry to put out around 100 kW (136 hp) and 145 Nm (107 lb-ft) of torque.
They said we should expect to see the concept at the 2015 Tokyo Motor Show, probably entering production in late 2017 and come with a price of under $20,000.
So far so good, but we’d have a little suggestion. The GT 86 has a wheelbase of 2,570 mm and its rear seats are almost useless when coming to legroom. According to the report, the small sportscar will have a wheelbase of around 2,400 mm and they also want to make it a 2+2 coupe.
Please don’t. Leave it a 2-seater car and make a worthy MX-5 alternative. What's the point in having two absolutely useless rear seats to drag around for nothing? Just leave the space open to recline the front seats correctly or store some things there. It's frustratingly painful to see those mini-seats there taking up space just because a "2+2 coupe" sounds cool and gives you a soothing idea that you can fit 2 people in the back... if they have had both legs amputated.
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