Toyota’s sports car plans will include a new GT86 and more powerful Supra

Toyota’s sports car line-up will be subjected to numerous changes over the next few years, with a fresh report from Japan shedding new light on the automaker’s plans from now until 2022.

2020

LC Cabriolet

Based on the claims from Best Car, the first model to emerge will be the Lexus LC Cabriolet that made its first public showing at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in July after being confirmed for production a month before.

Slated to arrive next year, the cabriolet, which bowed in near production form at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit back in January, will come powered by the same 351kW/540Nm normally aspirated 5.0-litre V8 engine as the coupe, paired to a 10-speed Direct Shift automatic gearbox.

In Japan however, it will likely only be offered in LC 500h guise that teams a 3.5-litre V6 engine with a lithium-ion battery pack for a total system output of 263kW/500Nm. Pricing is expected to start at around 13.5-million yen (R1 888 312).

2021

Next GT86

The topic of much speculation dating back nearly two years, the GT86 will continue for a second generation as Toyota’s entry-level sports coupe.

Following a report in January by Japanese website, japanesenostalgiccar.com, that the GT86 and its co-developed twin, the Subaru BRZ, will be discontinued in lure of the then still-to-be-revealed Supra, the automaker’s US and Australian divisions hit back at the claims with the latter market’s Public Affairs Manager, Brodie Bott, stating that “the car is coming”.

“I don’t know where these reports have come from, but at this stage we are certainly not looking to discontinue it, it’s a pretty important car for us and it will be the little brother to the Supra,” he told goauto.com.au in February, before adding, “there will be [a second generation], we’ve seen it, it is coming”.

In a claim that first emerged in 2018, Best Car reports that the GT86/BRZ will indeed get more power with the 2.0-litre flat-four Boxer engine set to be replaced by the bigger 2.4-litre FA motor used in the new Legacy, Outback and US-market Ascent SUV.

Despite being turbocharged and producing 191kW/376Nm for use in the mentioned models, the online publication claims that the engine will instead be retuned and produce 162 kW, though no mention of turbocharging in this configuration was made.

If indeed forced assisted, the 2.4 will produce 17 kW more than the entry-level Japanese market Supra, the SZ which uses the same 2.0-litre turbocharged B48 engine as the BMW Z4. Despite the output, it would be less than the Supra SZ-R whose version of the B48 delivers 190 kW.

Supra

At the other end of the spectrum, and in an effective confirmation of recent comments made by Chief Engineer, Tetsuya Tada, the Supra will spawn a GRMN model packing in the region of 298 kW when it debuts in 2021.

“With a sports car, the promise is to offer more performance with each additional version. We have many ideas,” Tada told Autoblog.

2022

Rear-wheel-drive Mazda coupe

The result of entering into a partnership with Mazda back in June for the developing of a new rear-wheel-drive platform and a mild-hybrid straight-six engine, will reportedly not only result in the revival of the iconic Mark X sedan, but also the Hiroshima marque’s first rear-wheel-driven production car since the RX-8 ended seven years.

Following the spotting of two RX-8 test mules last month, Best Car reports that the new coupe will debut in 2022 at the same time as the new Mazda6 sedan, with the rumoured straight-six motor slated to produce 257 kW.

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