Back in June 2016, Tetsuya Tada, the lead engineer behind the Toyota 86 sports car, was quoted by Car Advice, voicing his opinion about the possibility of Toyota creating its own performance division to rival that of Mercedes-AMG, as well as BMW’s M Division and Audi’s quattro GmbH. Fast forward five months and a new report, this time from Autocar, is saying that Gazoo Racing, the Japanese automaker’s racing division that houses both Toyota and Lexus Racing, is looking to gain entry, or “increase its presence,” in road car markets outside of Japan.
The new report quotes no less than Koei Saga, the top man of both Gazoo Racing and Toyota’s own powertrain division. Speaking with the British website, Saga made no qualms about his “intention” for Gazoo Racing to be more active in Toyota’s road car affairs, indicating that it’s about time that the Japanese automaker’s road car and racing activities develop a more comprehensive relationship than it has in the past.
Saga didn’t immediately confirm plans to turn Gazoo Racing into Toyota’s equivalent of Mercedes-AMG or BMW’s M Division, but he certainly didn’t mince his words regarding his intentions for the racing division, going so far as to say that he’s already “working on that so we can have a brand like [BMW’s] M brand.”
Turning Gazoo Racing into a performance car brand is huge deal, especially if it follows a similar template that its German rivals have done with their own performance divisions. The obvious takeaway here is that a Gazoo division would have to include a family of performance cars that could either include sporty versions of Toyota’s existing line or new models altogether, including the upcoming Supra sports coupe.
Obviously, there are still plenty of details to be hashed out from his major development, not the least of which is how Toyota plans to navigate around the business complexities of creating a performance division. There’s also the issue of timetable, something that’s going to be difficult to answer at this point considering that the Japanese automaker has yet to officially confirm – or deny – these plans.
Rest assured though, a Toyota performance division is a huge deal, and one that, quite frankly, is a long time in the making.
Continue after the jump to read the full story.
from Top Speed http://ift.tt/2gDX1NW
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