Very well, it was nice whilst it lasted. Toyota had seemed to just be receiving its mojo back again with the Gazoo Racing sub-manufacturer. GR has been on a roll in current decades, with rapid-fire releases of driver-oriented functionality automobiles like the GR Supra, GR Yaris, GR86 and GR Corolla. However, if the GR86’s main engineer Yasunori Suezawa is right, supporters shouldn’t hold their breaths for an additional.
Talking via a translator to Australia’s Drive about future GR models, Suezawa mentioned, “There is [sic] none remaining basically, so this [the GR86] is the previous.” It is really not crystal clear if he intended the complete previous ever, whole end, or if there are no for a longer period any more in the functions at the minute. It is also doable that long run sports autos could not slide underneath the Gazoo Racing brand. It was fewer than a year ago that Toyota confirmed what appeared to be a strategy for an electrical sports activities car with a mid-“motor” profile.
Suezawa went on to pitch the GR Sport lineup, which attire up extra pedestrian products with sportier wheels, aero bits and in some cases suspension tuning á la BMW’s M Sport or Mercedes’s AMG-Line. “For the GR [performance brand], fundamentally this [the GR86] is the past,” he claimed. “But we have a GR Activity [brand] that we will be [widening] with models like the Corolla, Yaris Cross and C-HR.”
That’s small consolation for individuals anticipating a revival of, say, the MR2. It also phone calls into concern whether or not there will be successive generations of the existing crop of GR-branded autos. If the GR86 follows in the footsteps of the former technology, it may have a nine-yr lifespan. The GR Supra’s destiny will most likely be tied to the BMW Z4’s. The GR Yaris and GR Corolla will possible count what the up coming technology provides for the non-GR variants of those people automobiles, and irrespective of whether Toyota sticks with WRC.
It would come as a shock if Toyota enable Gazoo Racing just peter out. Not simply because fans like the GR brand name essentially, but since Toyota has designed these kinds of a significant deal about unifying its activity styles and racing actions below this a person banner. As long as exciting solutions hold coming, however, Toyota can connect with them whatever they want.