Toyota Needs Help To Make Sports Cars So It Can “Protect Car Enthusiasts”

Toyota seems keener than most manufacturers when it comes to sports cars. While others abandon the segment, it has the GR86 (for now), the GR Supra and there’s even talk of a new Toyota MR2 as well as a new Celica. But it can’t make either of those on its own.

Via a translator, GR Company President Tomoya Takahashi told a group of journalists: “The sports car market is shrinking in the future,” adding, “We cannot maintain sports cars as one brand, Toyota.”

“Collaboration between brands will increase in the future,” Takahashi explained, although he conceded, “We don’t know with whom we’re going to collaborate”. It’s definitely something he’s keen on, though, more from an altruistic standpoint than a purely business-driven perspective. “It’s not for one manufacturer to survive, but to protect car enthusiasts…Our mission is to make car guys smile, so we need to collaborate sometimes,” he said.

It wouldn’t be a new thing for Toyota. After all, the GT86 and its GR86 replacement were jointly developed with Subaru’s BRZ, and its fellow Japanese firm takes care of the manufacturing side of the equation. And then there’s the GR Supra, which as some on the Internet love to point out, owes a great deal to the BMW Z4.

As for which companies Toyota might work with in the future, all we can (and will) do is speculate. Subaru could still be an option - Toyota is still very much up for working together with the firm, as evidenced by a new joint venture between the pair plus Mazda on a new-generation combustion engine.

Speaking of which, Mazda seems a prime candidate - it may well appreciate some assistance in getting a next-generation ‘NE’ MX-5 to showrooms, something a collab with Toyota might well facilitate, along with a new MR2 or Celica.