Toyota Hopes To Resurrect Either The MR2 Or The Celica

With sports car back on the agenda for Toyota thanks to the Supra, the Japanese manufacturer is keen to bring back another famous name from the past
Toyota Hopes To Resurrect Either The MR2 Or The Celica

Toyota is once again strongly hinting that the Supra is just the start of a sports car revival at the company. A few months ago Toyota Supra chief engineer Tetsuya Tada noted that the newly-established ‘GR Group’ enables the company to “have specific resources, more resources, for developing sports cars and race cars,” but now assistant chief engineer Masayuki Kai has gone a step further in whetting the appetite of petrolheads.

Speaking to Road & Track, Kai-san dropped two pretty major names into the conversation “We want to have Celica back, we want to have the MR2 back…The biggest was Supra. Supra was number one, the biggest demand from the market,” he said, adding, “Now that we’ve brought Supra back, what will come next depends on the market needs.”

As to how either car might shape up, there are no plans at this stage. Kai-san hinted about the possibility of a new all-wheel drive Celica, and a mid-engined car using the MR2 designation. “Or maybe it could be a completely different model…We’ll have to wait and see,” he said.

Development costs remain a stumbling block - due to the more bespoke nature of sports cars and the more modest sales expectations, Toyota may need to go for another joint venture to make the business case work. It worked for the Supra, a car we probably wouldn’t have without the tie-up with BMW which has also given the world an all-new Z4.

When pointed out by Road & Track that Mazda manages to go solo with the MX-5, Kai-san responded: “They continuously developed that car. If you don’t do this - like Toyota, stopping the Supra for 16 years - it’s extremely difficult to bring it back.”

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Comments

Anonymous

I vote for an awd celica

09/21/2018 - 13:55 |
140 | 8
Anonymous

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

How bout two versions of the celica
One FWD
And also AWD

09/21/2018 - 14:10 |
42 | 2
☆★THEBOOSTEDBRIT★☆

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

Qian Li

09/21/2018 - 18:51 |
0 | 0
Keenan 1

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

AWD but also RWD like the original

09/21/2018 - 19:08 |
2 | 0
Anonymous

please do new mr2. Please make it in mx5 price range. please make it fun.

09/21/2018 - 13:57 |
46 | 0
Anonymous

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

A new mr2 with a perfect chassis and a “normal” engine, maybe hybrid, so it can be daylied without eating too much gas

09/21/2018 - 18:24 |
10 | 0
Duggan (koalafan) (koalafan7) (Esprit Team) (Z32 Group) (Lot

I hope they let us have a GT4 bc the 6th gen celica, especially the GT4 was fire. ALso it seems like we are starting another japanese sports car era

09/21/2018 - 13:59 |
12 | 0

And if that is the case and if mitsubishi gets their shit together: the next decades are going to be great

09/21/2018 - 18:05 |
0 | 0
Sudip Suresh

Guys its legit the age of revival of our JDM legends

09/21/2018 - 14:00 |
4 | 0
Klush

We’re getting the Supra so I’d be more excited about an MR2!

09/21/2018 - 14:02 |
4 | 0
Elliot.J99

MR2 pls

09/21/2018 - 14:02 |
6 | 0
Anonymous

An AWD Sports Coupe from Toyota would be pretty awesome. A Mid Engined RWD (Or FWD) sports car from Toyota would also be pretty awesome. Personally, I’d hope they’d do the AWD Celica

09/21/2018 - 14:02 |
0 | 0
Steve Buscemi

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

A mid engined car would never be FWD

09/22/2018 - 14:55 |
4 | 0
GTRTURTLE 🔰 🐢(Oo \ S K Y L I N E / oO) (Koen

The Celica would probably end up selling more than the MR2

09/21/2018 - 14:02 |
0 | 0

I would much prefer the MR2, but I agree that the Celica probably makes more business sense

09/21/2018 - 14:10 |
2 | 0

There’s the market for it. As an owner of a 40 year old Celica, I’ve talked to countless people, now in their 50s and 60s, who have fond memories of Celicas from their youth. If a new Celica came onto the market built on the same principles of the early RWD generations, it’d sell pretty well.

09/23/2018 - 14:32 |
0 | 0
Anonymous

Mr2. keep the midengine, rwd or awd NO FWD and No auto trans.

09/21/2018 - 14:16 |
16 | 0
Rise Comics

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

And put it at a Camry price point.

09/21/2018 - 14:48 |
10 | 0
ThatWeirdGinger

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

The MR2 has to be midengine, it stands for “Midship Runabout 2-seater” and/or “Midship RWD 2-seater” although Toyota never confirmed which one. Either way, it would have to be midengine to make any sense, and with the engine in the middle FWD is more expensive to produce. Especially since Toyota could just drop in a FWD drivetrain from a Corolla, Camry, etc. and tune it a bit.

09/21/2018 - 20:06 |
6 | 0
Anonymous

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

Midengined automatic front wheel drive car lol ?! :)

09/21/2018 - 20:13 |
2 | 0
Jia the Supra Fanboy

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

auto trans ftw

fite me

09/22/2018 - 02:02 |
0 | 0
ShadowHuayra (HemiPower)

But what if they did this?

09/21/2018 - 14:21 |
104 | 2

No😂

09/21/2018 - 15:19 |
8 | 0

No. Toyota would never do that. In fact, the arrival of the new supra is already a very good thing, because not many Japanese car companies are willing to do this, even though they need to collaborate with other manufacturer to cut the cost.

09/21/2018 - 15:34 |
24 | 0

I have a similar Rav4, and tbh it’s sportier than the last gen Celica ever could be. Oh and AWD, because why not.

09/21/2018 - 19:43 |
2 | 0

And call it the Celica Cross

09/21/2018 - 20:31 |
14 | 0

I would lose all faith in Toyota and remove all the badges from my Celica in shame if they did that.

09/23/2018 - 14:23 |
4 | 0