Now that Toyota’s GR sports range is a success, the Japanese brand could be thinking about expanding it. In addition to launching new generations of current models, such as the Supra and the GR 86, it could bring back two legends from its past: the Toyota MR2 and the Toyota Celica.
This is what emerges from an “Easter egg” that Toyota has hidden in the last chapter of his anime series GRIP. For a second, “MR2 MK4” and “Celica MK8” will read on a blackboard. It is clear that it is not a coincidence: it is just confirmation of something we already expected.
Two Toyota sports icons returning to expand the Gazoo Racing range
In the same way as in many other sectors, in the automobile nostalgia sells. It has been demonstrated many times, with successes such as the Volkswagen New Beetle, the Alpine A110, the Fiat 500 (until it became electric) or the recently arrived 100% electric Renault 5 E-Tech.
The brands are clear about this, which is why some recover icons from their past that were stopped being sold years ago without a successor. This is the case of Honda, which is now going to bring back the Honda Prelude, a coupé with several generations behind it that triumphed all over the world and, more than 20 years after disappearing, has been resurrected.
Toyota He is also aware that the nostalgia formula works. You just have to look at how quickly the limited launch series of the new Toyota Land Cruiser sold, which was differentiated by its specific retro design inspired by the old Land Cruisers.
The Japanese brand has also verified that its old Toyota Land Cruiser 70 that was put on sale 40 years ago is such an extremely good car that we still want a new one, so it has put it back on sale in some markets.
And it seems that Toyota has more “retro strategies” in store, this time to resurrect two of the most important cars in its history: the Toyota MR2 and the Toyota Celica. Both disappeared many years ago, to the chagrin of fans of the brand and sports cars in general, since they are two legends, not in vain, seven generations of the Celica were manufactured between 1970 and 2006, while there were three generations of the MR2 between 1984 and 2007.
Around the time when both models were discontinued, Toyota entered a stage in which sports cars took a backseat and became a “boring brand.” Luckily, those years are behind us and Toyota is once again a reference when it comes to making sports cars thanks to its division GR (Gazoo Racing).
Now Toyota has several models that excite any fan of the world of motors: Toyota Supra, Toyota GR Yaris and Toyota GR 86 (also the GR Corolla in other markets). But the Japanese company wants more, or so it seems, from what we have been able to see in the latest chapter of the GRIP anime series that the brand has uploaded to YouTube.
In it minute 0:47 You can see in the background a blackboard on which several car names are written: Supra MK6, Celica MK8, MR2 MK5, GR 86 MK3 and GR GT3. Since these names are not there by chance, it is fair to think that Toyota is sending a message to its followers to show them its plans.
Those plans seem to include a new generation of the Supra and GR 86 that are in the brand’s catalog at the moment. There is also a GR GT3, a competition car that has been in the oven for a while and that we should see very soon.
But the most striking thing is that the names Celica and MR2 appear; the first, accompanied by a “MK8” to clarify that it is the eighth generation of that car (remember that its seventh delivery was the last, for now) and the second together with a “MK4” that also indicates that it is its fourth installment (the last MR2, so far, is the MK3).
The chapter has been uploaded to YouTube for more than a month and the detail on the board had gone unnoticed, until a follower of the brand saw it and shared it with the rest of the people in a Toyota Supra MK5 forum.
Toyota FT-Se Concept. It is the first prototype to carry only the GR logo and not the Toyota one. It could be a preview of the new MR2.
In this way, Toyota would have revealed its plans for a future range of sports cars and the truth is that it makes sense to see those names because the GR models that the brand currently sells are being a success. The return of these two icons to expand the company’s most passionate range would be great news for all Toyota followers.
What we don’t know is how both models will return. The Celica should be a smaller and less powerful coupe than the Supra, it could even be the rival of the new Honda Prelude, while the MR2 should be a small mid-engine sports car, probably inspired by the concept Toyota FT-Se that we saw last year. It will be necessary to see if Toyota electrifies them in some way or not, in fact, the FT-Se could be completely electric.
Source: www.motorpasion.com
