At last year’s Tokyo Auto Salon, Toyota showcased a concept study of an all-wheel drive hybrid sports car (see here) loosely based on the now obsolete MR2 roadster, developed in partnership with Japan’s GAZOO Racing.
Now the time has come for Toyota to unwrap its successor in the form of the GRMN SPORTS HYBRID Concept II that will receive both its public and racing debut at this weekend’s highly anticipated 39th Nürburgring 24-hour endurance race in Germany.
The name “GRMN” stands for GAZOO Racing tuned by Meister of Nürburgring, in honor of the late Hiromu Naruse (1944-2010), the Toyota chief test driver and head of the GAZOO Racing team who died in an accident last summer driving a prototype of the Lexus LFA Nurburgring Edition in Germany.
Unless you take a peek at the interior, there's no way you'll be able to recognize the Toyota MR-2 hiding under the exaggerated Ferrari Testarossa-style strakes of this Japanese creation (or is that abomination?). Crafted by Value Progress, the Dragstar F1 Dragon is built on a third generation Toyota MR-2 and despite the extra-long nose, it keeps the donor car's mid-engine layout intact.
This isn't the first time we've seen a Toyota MR2 dressed up as something else, in this case a Ferrari F430 Spider, but the story here is that the owner of the replica took it to a classic / sports car meeting of some sorts in The Netherlands parking it close to the real Italian deal. Talk about having faith in your creation... See all the pictures after the break.
We came across this Gumpert Apollo replica that's based on a second generation Toyota MR2 (1990-1999) on eBay. While the original mid-engined Apollo supercar gets an Audi-sourced 4.2-liter, twin-turbo V8 with 650HP or an insane 800HP in Sport form, the Toyota-based replica makes do with a modified version of the Japanese sports car's four-cylinder turbo engine, with the seller claiming it yields "255 WHP at 15psi and 303 WHP at around 19psi" on the dyno. Hit the 'read more' button below for the full image gallery.
Ever since Honda announced the CR-Z hybrid sports coupe, there have been rumors going around about the possibility of a corresponding Toyota model. Just to make it clear, we haven't heard anything official, but Japan's Best Car magazine is reporting/speculating/imagining (take your pick) that Toyota may revive the MR2 as a hybrid model called the MR-S to compete with Honda's CR-Z coupe that will go on sale in 2010.
We'll have to wait until some of our Japanese-fluent readers give us all the details from the article, but from what we gather, the MR-S would probably use a specially developed version of the Toyota Prius' hybrid powertrain.
The magazine's article is accompanied by an artist's impression on how the MR-S could like. Judging by the air-inlets at the back, the proposed MR-S most likely features a mid-engine, rear-wheel drive layout.
If true, this would make the MR-S a sportier proposal than the front-wheel drive CR-Z.
As we said before, there's nothing official about the existence of such a model, but we can't say that it sounds improbable for Toyota to develop a second sports car after the FT-86, especially if it's a smaller, lightweight hybrid.
Source: Best Car
