The GR GT's Shaky Business Case Isn't Stopping Toyota From Making More Sports Cars

High-volume models like the RAV4 and Camry definitely won’t set your pulse racing, but these hugely successful products give Toyota a license to print money. The Japanese automotive juggernaut is thankfully not run by accountants, as not every product in its sprawling lineup plays it safe by chasing profits above all else. Take, for example, the new GR GT, which the company itself candidly admits “makes no financial sense.”

The surprising disclosure comes from Toyota Senior Vice President of Automotive Operations Andrew Gilleland. In an interview with The Drive, he explained that the GR GT shows what the company can do when fewer financial strings are attached. The new V8-powered supercar perfectly embodies the “no more boring cars” mantra of Akio Toyoda, who served as CEO between 2009 and 2023 before stepping down to become chairman.

The mid-engine supercar heralds a new positioning for Gazoo Racing as a standalone performance brand. Both the road-going car and its track-only counterpart drop the Toyota logos and use GR badging instead. Despite the GR GT’s shaky business case, the company is determined to expand its performance car range downward with more models.

Are The Celica And MR2 Coming Back?

According to Autocar, the Celica and MR2 are both returning. Although Toyota has been testing a new turbocharged 2.0-liter engine for a while, it has yet to say which models will use it. The British magazine claims it’ll power the reborn MR2, with the new four-cylinder engine, codenamed “G20E,” sitting behind the seats. Engineers are targeting more than 400 hp from this engine in road-going cars, while uncorked versions for motorsport applications could potentially push out more than 600 hp.

It would make sense for the Celica to use a variation of the same four-pot in a front-engined application for a more affordable performance model. Whatever the case may be, the GR Yaris M concept is definitive proof that Toyota is working on a potent 2.0-liter engine, one that could replace the three-cylinder, 1.5-liter unit used by the GR Yaris and GR Corolla hot hatches, where it makes 300 hp.

Honestly, having so many niche models doesn’t seem particularly sustainable from a business standpoint. That’s especially true considering Toyota’s new CEO, Kenta Kon, recently said the company already has too many models. Funding fun projects while looking to downsize seems counterintuitive at a time when the meteoric rise of Chinese brands can no longer be ignored.