Toyota Hints At Supra Successor In Three-tier Sports Car Lineup

Exciting times lie ahead for Toyota, which until recently has been utterly boring throughout its model lineup. That has, of course, all changed with the official introduction of the Toyota GT 86 in Tokyo. That car will not be the last exciting car from the Japanese giant automaker if the words of Toyota's chief engineer Tetsuya Tada, the man behind the development of the GT 86, are to be taken seriously.

“Right now, the 86 will be a mid-size sports car”, Tada revealed in Japanese at the Tokyo Motor Show. “I would like to have one smaller and one larger; one would probably be a Supra follower”. In other words, the spiritual successor to the AE 86, the GT 86 will be a mid-size sports coupe in a future three-tier sports car lineup, positioned between a range-topping successor to the Supra and another smaller, cheaper sports car.

Toyota had a sports car heritage spanning 50 years, a time period that saw iconic cars like the AE 86, the Celica, the MR2 and the Supra come and go. Notably, the latter three were discontinued in the last decade, leaving a gaping void in Toyota's range that is filled with hugely popular if very mundane cars.

For now, however, Toyota has yet to officially give the nod for any Supra successor nor for the Supra nameplate to remain in use. Still, the return of a sports car like the GT 86 can only be good news for petrol heads around the world craving for a Toyota halo car. Moreover, with a company boss like Akio Toyoda, a self-proclaimed lover of driving, at the helm, the glorious days of Toyota are back in sight.