Toyota Motor Thailand has just announced the introduction of the Camry ESport, a mid-size sedan with an attitude. Judging from the 200k views gathered on Youtube in just a few days, we'd say it's an important debut.
The ESport is based on the regular 2.5-liter petrol model and gets small increases in both power and torque. HP has gone from 181 to 184 while torque is increased to 235 Nm from 231 Nm on the stock model. Most of that is down to the exhaust muffler being changed.
Toyota says the handling will feel different to that of a normal Camry. The suspension has been firmed up a bit, and the alloy wheels are quite large.
The design is based on the Camry sedan sold in America and Australia, not the one from Japan. It's a modern look for this otherwise ordinary machine, but it has got some cosmetic enhancements. Around the back, we notice large twin exhaust ports and a boot lid spoiler painted in the same color as the body.
Around the front, we get a deeper set bumper, black mesh grille and tweaks to the headlights. Even the interior has been garnished to look more sporty by doing away with the fake wood trim pieces and replacing them with aluminum-look silver panels.
The Camry ESport will not any lap records or humiliate BMWs in a straight line, but it appeals to the Thai buyer with a passion for sporty things. The standard gearbox is, unfortunately, an automatic one, but you can decide to change the six gears yourself by using the paddles behind the steering wheel.
The price of the ESport has been set at 1.639 million baht ($48,622) – 70,000 baht ($2,000) more than the regular Camry 2.5.
Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida. Full profile
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