3 days ago
18
There won't be a V8 Supra, but Toyota's GR performance cars could be treated to track-ready special editions developed in Australia.
Toyota may sprinkle magic dust from its upcoming V8 Supercars Championship race cars onto a fleet of new, Australian-designed limited editions of its road-legal GR performance cars.
The Supercars-themed specials could be developed by Toyota Australia, as its first genuine, locally-engineered performance cars since 2008's TRD HiLux and Aurion.
"We can't replicate the Supra in its track form because it's a V8, right? So it's a unique vehicle in that way," Toyota Australia sales and marketing boss Sean Hanley told Drive.
"But certainly there may be opportunities around the GR brand to do other things related to Supercars. It won't necessarily always be just Supra though. We'll be looking more holistically at the brand proposition.
"In other words, we may do some track special editions, but it may not always just be Supra, it may be wrapped around the GR brand."
Hanley said any Supercars-themed editions would be created locally as the Supercars program "while supported by our parent company ... is actually very much a localised project."
Asked if it would be a full GR performance model, rather than a GR Sport with less extensive modifications, Hanley said:
"Well, certainly our relationship with Walkinshaw [its Supercars homologation team partner] would make that an interesting proposition, and I think we'd have the capability for that kind of thinking.
"We don't have those plans as we sit here today. Our priority right now is to get on that track, get ourselves prepared, and then after we've got on the track and settled into the Supercars programme and development, we can then look at what could be next for us from a brand perspective.
"Can we do a performance car locally? Is it a sports car locally? This kind of thing."
Exactly what form a V8 Supercars-inspired Toyota GR performance special would take is a mystery.
Hanley told Australian media the company is looking to launch a range of GR performance parts, from splitters and wheels to brake discs and pads, strut braces, coil-over suspension kits, and exhaust systems.
It's possible the GR editions may draw from this range, but these items are expected to be derived from Japan's GR Parts catalogue – although possibly modified to suit Australian homologation rules – rather than developed locally.
The cost of emissions testing is likely to rule out power increases for a local GR special edition, but it could tweak the suspension, brakes, wheels, styling, and other elements to connect to the Supercars program.
It is expected that if any modifications are installed locally, they would be fitted by Toyota at its Melbourne facilities, rather than Supercars partner Walkinshaw.
Hanley poured cold water on a Walkinshaw-fettled HiLux, in the same vein as the former Holden Special Vehicles outfit's collaborations with Isuzu, Mitsubishi and Volkswagen on similar modified, off-road-focused utes.
Toyota Australia has a history in developing local high-performance special editions that, in many cases, have been sold globally.
It led the styling and engineering of the latest HiLux GR Sport ute, which was initially conceived for Australia, but expanded into a global product, such was the positive reaction of the HiLux's chief engineer.
Australia-only editions it has partially or wholly developed include the supercharged TRD HiLux and Aurion of the late 2000s, and the turbocharged Corolla Sportivo of 2001.
Alex Misoyannis has been writing about cars since 2017, when he started his own website, Redline. He contributed for Drive in 2018, before joining CarAdvice in 2019, becoming a regular contributing journalist within the news team in 2020. Cars have played a central role throughout Alex’s life, from flicking through car magazines at a young age, to growing up around performance vehicles in a car-loving family. Highly Commended - Young Writer of the Year 2024 (Under 30) Rising Star Journalist, 2024 Winner Scoop of The Year - 2024 Winner
