Hold up: Toyota is prepping a sports car 'Trinity'
An entire family of 'all-new sports models' is coming on Friday; best start guessing what they could be...
It’s been a while since we’ve discussed a ‘trinity’ of cars, the term probably most famous from the hybrid hypercar ‘holy trinity’ - the McLaren P1, Porsche 918 Spyder and Ferrari LaFerrari - of 2013. But now there’s another, as it turns out Toyota isn’t revealing just one sports car this week. It’s revealing three. And the file name for the teaser pic is ‘Trinity-WP’. The world premiere of a Toyota Trinity sounds like it could be one of those odd MPVs that only ever launches in Japan, but we know too much now. The Toyota Trinity is three sports cars, all to be debuted together this week. Talk about a nice festive surprise.
We weren’t going to run another shadowy teaser, honest. The debut is Friday, after all. But when the accompanying press release specifically mentions an ‘All-new Sports Models World Premiere’, we couldn't resist. One new sports car is exciting enough, let alone three. As is so often the case with teaser pics, there isn’t loads to go on here, but certainly enough to be excited by...
It seems reasonable to suggest that all three are front-engined, with the car closest to the camera most familiar from the GR GT teasers seen thus far; there’s perhaps a bit of classic Coke bottle Celica silhouette to it in this light. The car over to the left boasts a rear light signature very similar to that seen by the Lexus Sport Concept seen at last year’s Monterey Car Week. Back then, very little was said about the car, and it was sort of overlooked given the obscene amount of exotic cars in California, so expect Friday to correct that oversight. Certainly it made a very positive first impression.
Then there’s the wild one, the car with rivets in the roof, a glasshouse just about wide enough for a Christmas card, and bonnet slats to make a TVR Sagaris look meek. This is the one that looks most like the stunning GR GT3 concept of 2022, at least what can be seen of it, and is therefore probably the most exciting for the moment. You can just about see a Michelin logo on the tyre, so perhaps this is the actual race car.
Either way, it doesn't seem unreasonable to suggest that the trinity might make use of three different brands - Toyota, Lexus, GR - as well as making use of three different powertrains - petrol, hybrid, electric - which in turn would deliver three very different sports cars on a shared platform. That would certainly be a compelling way of fulfilling the manufacturer's commitment to a multi-pathway approach to carbon neutrality.
It’s easy to see, for example, an electric Lexus as a new flagship of that range (especially given it’s currently headed up by a people carrier), a hybrid Toyota halo pushing people to Priuses, and a GR track car luring others from GT3s. Not so long ago just one of those things would have sounded too good to be true, though now a trio of Toyota sports cars will be a reality as soon as this Friday. It can’t come soon enough.
The internet seems to think the MR2 is coming back, but they would need to be really careful to properly delineate it from the GR86. If they are priced anywhere near similar they'll cannibalise sales from each other - already a risk given they also have the GRY in that area.
I could see them making a Supra replacement that is mid-engined, i.e. the "MR2 spirit", but still badged a Supra. That said, none of the cars in the picture look mid-engined.
Given the proportions (some of these could workably be 2+2) we could see the Celica badge back, taking advantage of the dearth of cars in that sector (cheaper-end 2+2 coupes that fit humans).
Whilst we're Toyota reminiscing... My MK2, as referenced above.
If there is then I wonder if it'll be a heavier and more GT oriented car like the MK2, if it is it'll at least follow that pattern - lightweight (MK1) - heavier (MK2) - lightweight (MK3) - heavier (MK4)
Toyota can be really good at this stuff. Fingers crossed!!
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