New Toyota MR2 details uncovered
The potential return of the Toyota MR2 will see the sports car stay true to its mid-engined roots, but with the added bonus of all-wheel drive.
Toyota seems to not want to keep much about the new MR2 a secret, based on the most recent comments from its Gazoo Racing executives.
Rumours of the MR2’s return have been fuelled by Japanese media in recent years, and were put into overdrive when Toyota started testing a new turbocharged four-cylinder engine in the GR Yaris M Concept, mounting it behind the driver.
The GR Yaris M Concept has been competing in Japan’s Super Taikyu Series where it is being used as a testbed for the new engine, though according to Naohiko Saito, Toyota GR’s chief engineer, the production vehicle will go all-wheel drive, rather than the rear-drive concept.
“This layout is new for us, but we have found in our initial testing that the combination of an all-wheel-drive mid-ship layout offers the best layout for high-performance driving,” Saito told Auto Express.
Auto Express’ claim that the Yaris M Concept is rear-wheel drive is at odds with comments made by GR president Tomoya Takahashi earlier this year, who told Toyota Times, the brand’s in-house magazine, the new test car is all-wheel drive.
“The midship layout was our way of making cars that are fun for customers to drive. As for why we went with four-wheel drive for the midship, you can trace that back to the MR2,” Takahashi said.
“The MR2 likewise had an incredibly well-balanced weight distribution between the front and rear, but it was prone to spinning. What made the car turn so well also led it to spin out easily on corners.
“By turning that layout into four-wheel drive, you transform the power that causes the vehicle to spin into a force that pulls the car forward, improving stability through corners. That’s why we took on the challenge of a midship four-wheel drive, aiming for faster, more stable cornering.
“When you get behind the wheel, we hope the first thing people notice is how well the car turns. From here, development is going to happen out on the racetrack for all to see, as we want customers who purchase the car in the future to feel that they’ve been part of the process.”
For Toyota chairman Akio Toyoda – also known by his racing pseudonym Morizo – the Super Taikyu Series is the perfect place to test the new powertrain, telling Auto Express it wouldn’t have been considered for production without first going racing.
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“If we don’t challenge [ourselves in motorsport] maybe we don’t fail, but if we challenge then maybe we fail,” Toyoda said.
“If we decided to make such a car in a meeting, it would never exist,” Toyoda added. “We are showing to our employees that you can challenge, you can say anything you want, because we’re doing it, we’re showing in front of everybody.”
It’s understood that the new Toyota MR2 will launch later this decade, after Takahashi said the production version of the car the GR Yaris test mule is developing is only in its first of four stages, which can take four to five years overall, putting a debut in the late 2020s out of the picture.
