15 years ago, it was almost unimaginable to bill Toyota as one of the leading examples for building fun and exciting cars for the mass market. At the time, the Japanese giant was saddled with a rather tame range of vehicles that didn’t exactly set any pulses racing.
Fast forward to today and Toyota has the widest variety of performance models among the Japanese automakers. It also helps that the company is determined to bring back some iconic and memorable sports cars from the past.
It all started with the 86 in 2012, followed by the Supra although the latter will wind down production soon. The rumors of a Celica comeback are stronger than ever, but what about the Toyota MR2? Well, Japan’s largest automaker dropped a pretty big hint during this year’s Tokyo Auto Salon in the form of a Yaris.
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What, what?
Of course, it’s not just any ordinary Yaris as it’s the GR Yaris. It doesn’t stop there, though, as the folks from Toyota shoved an engine where the back seats are supposed to be. Yes, this is a mid-engined GR Yaris, and it’s possibly a test bed for the Toyota MR2 revival.
It’s called the GR Yaris M Concept with the M likely standing for Mid-ship or mid-engined. Officially, it’s a proposal for Toyota’s entry in Japan’s Super Taikyu racing series. So, instead of a 1.6-liter, three-cylinder turbo as one gets in a standard GR Yaris, it comes with a 2.0-liter turbo instead. There are no official power figures just yet.
The thing is, Super Taikyu rules dictate a vehicle must be homologated first before it’s allowed to enter. In other words, there must be a production version of the car a team or manufacturer plans to enter. If Toyota wants to push through with the mid-engine route, the race car must have a showroom version.
For now, though, Toyota isn’t mentioning other plans moving forward. That said, the fact that the company is seriously considering a mid-engined car is bound to spark speculation for the MR2’s return.
