We reported earlier that Toyota had upped its stake in Fuji Heavy Industries, maker of Subaru cars. We mentioned one possible fruit of that merger: a jointly-developed rear wheel-drive (RWD) sportscar. Autocar has "top secret" sketches of what the Toyobaru lovechild might look like. The coupe will use Subaru's 175hp boxer four as a base engine motivating the rear wheels only (to keep weight down and handling sharp). Apparently, there is also talk of an all wheel-drive 2.5-liter turbo-engined top-of-the-line model; a throwback to Celica GT4s of yore. With the Miata squarely in its sights, the Japanese-built coupe's could sticker as low as $20k. The United States is pegged as the main market for this tasty little slice of hoon, which should hit dealers sometime in 2010. Could this possibly be the RWD Scion tC that's hit the rumor mills?
17 Comments on “Toyota – Subaru Joint Sportscar Plans Revealed...”
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Blasphemy!
There can be one true drivetrain on a car with Pleades on the grill and it is AWD!
It sounds like Toyota wants to steal Subaru’s lunch $ and make a Scion WRX.
Or they are feeling pressured by Hyundai’s Genesis Coupe.
Thank you, Santa.
(I’m able to copy and paste the link, but it “clicks” incorrectly.)
Orian : Or they are feeling pressured by Hyundai’s Genesis Coupe.
Go nuts – just do so with the Toyota badge on the hood. A Subaru without AWD is not a Subaru anymore. Don’t rob it of it’s sole remaining identity (God knows Subaru is having an identity crisis of it’s own).
Blasphemy indeed.
I never thought I’d see the day where Subaru and Toyota would be copying from the Hyundai book of design. Honestly, it looks 10 years older than the Genesis (which doesn’t look hot to begin with).
Damn you Toyota, just f***ing do it already! Come out with a non-derivative product for ONCE in your miserable copycat focus-grouped existence, I DARE you.
I say it’s a great idea. Keep the 2wd’s on the Toyota lines, while the purely awds can stay on Subaru lots.
I’ve been dying for a replacement to my ‘89 240SX for over a decade… Maybe this replacement, light-weight, RWD, decently-fast car is around the corner, no?
… probably not. The Miata is the closest production car I’ve seen, and while lightweight is good, I like cars with substance.. and 2+2 seating…
I’m in. The sooner the better. The ‘98 Impreza’s going to hit 200K this summer.
It can be a Subaru with RWD and not be blasphemous, for the love of God. Subaru’s sole remaining identity? An identity crisis? Come on. Until recently Toyota owned less than 10 percent of Subaru and now they own less than 20 percent. I’ll bet you hate Van Halen with Sammy Hagar, too.
The Toyota/Subaru partnership is probably much more innocuous than we think. And besides, Subaru probably NEEDS Toyota at this point.
That car is sweet, I wouldn’t hesitate to buy one in order to satisfy my sense of principle.
-Matt
-Matt
to B.C
Toyota *used* to make interesting non-derivative non-copycat vehicles. Crazy Vans and Previas, MR2, Supra, Alltrac Celica, 4×4 Tercel, turbo pickup trucks, etc.
The mid 90s is when the yawn showed up and took over.
I am not going to saying much about the styling – it is so early, but yeah it is Celica meets Cavalier and that isn’t good.
As for the platform – I say keep AWD off of it. Subaru or not – for a sports car weight is bad.
Also if they are going after the MX-5 (nee Miata) market – they had better bring a light-weight rwd platform.
Besides Subaru already has a AWD Sports hatch – it is called the WRX.
The one thing that has me interested is that Subaru has been doing a good job keeping weight down (I think the last Legacy came in lighter than it’s predecessor) – so there is hope.
“Come out with a non-derivative product for ONCE in your miserable copycat focus-grouped existence, I DARE you.”
The xB isn’t exactly derivative.
Make a ragtop and I’m in.
It would be seriously great if there is a renaissance of lightweight rwd sports cars. I hope this rumor is true.
Reuters has a story out this morning about Toyota upping its stake in Fuji Heavy, and it reports it as fact that the companies are jointly developing a sports car that’ll be sold by both Toyota and Subaru.
-Matt
Yes please.
Latest model scoobies are ugly and van halen with sammy hagar was shite.
I like the idea, but I think that this car does not need AWD. Aside from robbing WRX sales, AWD is heavy and unnecessary when building a car that is RWD in the first place. It would rock if this thing were no bigger/heavier than the current civic.