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Toyota aims for rebirth with sports car
Source: Agencies |
November 28, 2011, Monday
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TOYOTA Motor Corp unveiled a highly anticipated sports car that it hopes will trigger the rebirth of the company as a maker of "fun" cars that it hasn't been in years.
Japan's top automaker took the wraps off the compact, rear-wheel-drive model at the Fuji Speedway circuit at the foot of Mount Fuji yesterday, in front of thousands of racing fans, in a departure from traditional banquet-room launches.
Toyota gave away little more than it already had about the 2-liter engine car except for its final design and name, simply called "86" or "Hachi-roku" in Japan and GT86 in Europe, in a tribute to the popular AE86 generation of the Corolla Levin that took the market by storm in the 1980s.
"We've made you wait a long time for this," Toyota Chief Executive Akio Toyoda, dressed in a racing suit, told the crowd as he emerged from an orange 86. "At long last, here is a car for car lovers."
Under Toyoda, who took his post in mid-2009, Toyota aims to shed its image as a maker of reliable but staid cars.
The lightweight four-seater 86 is the first sports car under the Toyota badge since production of the MR-S ended in 2007.
It was co-developed with Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd, which will sell a twin model as the BRZ under its sporty Subaru brand. Both cars will hit showrooms next spring.
"Usually, when sports cars are developed, it's all about the fastest lap times, horsepower and acceleration," said Tetsuya Tada, the car's chief engineer on the Toyota side. "But when we asked fans at motorsport events around the world, we found people were actually looking more for an affordable sports car that feels good driving on any road, and that's not just fast on a circuit.''
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