THERE’S nothing quite like the thrill of driving a good sports car. And one man knows how to make them better than just about anyone else.
Tetsuya Tada devotes his life to putting a smile on their face through the thrill of sports cars. He’s the chief engineer of Toyota’s sports division and has developed an almost cult-like following across the world for being the ‘godfather of 86’, and bringing the fun back into driving.
His 86 sports car which was announced in 2011 was a revelation. For less than $30,000, he had created a genuine rear-wheel drive sports car that was more fun to drive than cars 10 times its price. It was a car that went back to the basics of a sports car and absolutely owned the fundamentals.
Since then, his Australian following has become so loyal that each year Toyota throws the Festival of 86, where thousands of 86 owners come and bond over their love of the car he created. Tada-san is a rock star there, everyone lines up for his signature, but not on a T-shirt or hat, on their cars that he created.
Nearly five years on from the debut of the 86 and Tada-san is ready to look at the future of the sports car for Toyota.
Traditionally polite, warm and with a cheeky sense of humour, Tada-san sat down with news.com.au over dinner in Tokyo to talk about what lies ahead for sports cars.
“Our sports car future at Toyota will revolve around three cars — 86 in the middle, S-FR down the bottom and one on top like the Supra,” he said.
The mention of the Supra immediately garnered excitement by all in the room, it’s a nameplate that Toyota has retired, but there had been word that the company is working on a replacement with BMW for some time now.
“If we do it, it must be something never seen before by Toyota,” he said.
“Hybrid technology is a key technology for us, but if we release a hybrid sports car in the market, it must be something new.
“It must be something that makes people say ‘wow!’”
“Like with 86, when we put small Prius tyres on it. Journalist’s complained when they saw it announced, but most were really surprised when they drove it. That’s the type of surprise we want.”
Toyota’s strong investment in hybrid technology, beginning with the very unsporty Prius will likely result in the tech evolving into high performance powertrains for the next Supra.
But it won’t be like Honda’s new NSX, Tada-san said. How that will differ from the Honda’s use of an electric motor to compliment its turbocharged six-cylinder engine, he wouldn’t say, but he promised it will be something completely unseen before.
On the other end of the sports car scale, the cheap and lightweight S-FR concept represents an exciting future for young car enthusiasts.
Inspired by Tada-san’s favourite car growing up, the Toyota Yota-hachi, the car will have a small engine, be rear-wheel drive and weigh less than one tonne. In its current concept form the car has a 1.5-litre naturally aspirated engine, but he also said they were experimenting with a small turbo and even the possibility of using some form of electricity.
With the 86 being on sale for over three years now, Tada-san said it’s due for a fairly heavy midlife update soon. This includes its exterior look, interior and finally an update to its 2.0-litre naturally aspirated boxer engine. But if you were hoping for a standard turbocharger, it’s still looking unlikely with Tada-san saying it would be “too easy”.
Interestingly though, he was very interested in the idea of fitting an electric turbocharger to the car.
There is also great news for fans of the hot hatch, with the confirmation of a Toyota hot hatch, most likely based on the Yaris confirmed.
We need a real hot hatch for the Toyota brand. Because we, Toyota, already announced the comeback to WRC for 2017,” Tada-san said to news.com.au.
“I must create a real hot hatch.”
Currently Toyota offers a more powerful version of the Yaris in called the Vitz GRMN in Japan only which is powered by a small 1.5-litre turbocharged engine that pumps out 112kW of power and 206Nm of torque. The new international version will put out power closer to that of the 141kW Volkswagen Polo GTI or the Ford Fiesta ST, both of which Tada-san said the car would aim to beat.
There’s no exact timeline for any of these cars, but we were told the first of them would be seen at some point next year.
Regardless, Toyota’s sports car future, especially with its use of electric technology is looking especially exciting
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