There’s been plenty of talk surrounding the long-awaited return of the Toyota Supra. That’s to be expected for a car that a lot of people have been waiting for. But the return of the sports car isn’t just about a once-famous nameplate coming back to the spotlight; it’s also about looking into the future and what that future has in store in the evolution of the Supra name. It’s already been reported that the 2018 Supra will actually be a hybrid performance model. Now we’re told that the Supra won’t actually be sold under the Toyota brand, but will instead be the first car to be sold under Toyota’s newly launched Gazoo road performance division.
That bombshell comes from no less than Gazoo Racing chief Koei Saga, who told Autocar that the Supra would be one of the first of many performance models that will be sold under the Gazoo name. It’s still unclear if that shift will end up with the sports car carrying a different name altogether – Gazoo Supra and Toyota Supra Gazoo are two names being thrown around – but the important thing here is that Toyota’s now creating a separate performance arm that will include the Supra hybrid sports car.
For now, the Gazoo Supra (let’s call it that for the time being) will cede a lot of the attention to the three-door Gazoo Yaris hot hatchback, which technically counts as the first production model under the new Gazoo brand. The hot hatch is scheduled to make its debut at the 2017 Geneva Motor Show this coming March where it will showcase a lot of its wares, including a 1.5-liter turbocharged engine that spits out more than 210 horsepower.
Once the Gazoo Yaris is introduced to the world, look for Toyota and Gazoo to turn their focus on putting the finishing touches on the Supra hybrid sports car as it prepares to make its own world debut in 2018, presumably with a different name that what we’ve been expecting.
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from Top Speed http://ift.tt/2kclax4
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