Toyota GR86 chief engineer says no extra GR vehicles are deliberate

Properly, it was good whereas it lasted. Toyota had appeared to only be getting its mojo again with the Gazoo Racing sub-brand. GR has been on a roll lately, with rapid-fire releases of driver-oriented efficiency vehicles just like the GR Supra, GR Yaris, GR86 and GR Corolla. Sadly, if the GR86’s chief engineer Yasunori Suezawa is right, followers should not maintain their breaths for an additional.

Talking via a translator to Australia’s Drive about future GR fashions, Suezawa stated, “There may be [sic] none left really, so this [the GR86] is the final.” It isn’t clear if he meant absolutely the final ever, full cease, or if there are not any extra within the works in the intervening time. It is also potential that future sports activities vehicles might not fall below the Gazoo Racing model. It was lower than a 12 months in the past that Toyota confirmed what gave the impression to be an idea for an electrical sports activities automotive with a mid-“engine” profile. 

Suezawa went on to pitch the GR Sport lineup, which attire up extra pedestrian fashions with sportier wheels, aero bits and generally suspension tuning á la BMW’s M Sport or Mercedes’s AMG-Line. “For the GR [performance brand], mainly this [the GR86] is the final,” he stated. “However we’ve got a GR Sport [brand] that we are going to be [widening] with fashions just like the Corolla, Yaris Cross and C-HR.”

That is small comfort for these anticipating a revival of, say, the MR2. It additionally calls into query whether or not there will likely be successive generations of the present crop of GR-branded vehicles. If the GR86 follows within the footsteps of the earlier technology, it may need a nine-year lifespan. The GR Supra’s destiny will in all probability be tied to the BMW Z4’s. The GR Yaris and GR Corolla will probably rely what the following technology brings for the non-GR variants of these vehicles, and whether or not Toyota sticks with WRC. 

It will come as a shock if Toyota let Gazoo Racing simply peter out. Not as a result of lovers love the GR model essentially, however as a result of Toyota has made such an enormous deal about unifying its sport fashions and racing actions below this one banner. So long as fascinating merchandise maintain coming, although, Toyota can name them no matter they need.