Filed under: Concept Cars, Coupe, Budget, Performance, Japan, Hatchback, Toyota, Rumormill
We see plenty of rumors crop up on the interwebs, but we’ve rarely wanted any of them to come true as badly as this particular juicy morsel. The crew at Autocar reports that Toyota wants to build a new model to honor its former chief test driver, Hiromu Naruse. Naruse recently passed away in an a collision while testing the Lexus LFA at the Nürburgring. If the whispers are true, the car won’t be a badge-job for the Camry. According to reports, Naruse always wanted to see Toyota produce an inexpensive, rear-wheel drive coupe that was affordable enough for the little guys of the world to be able to hop into the driver’s seat.
If you’re thinking there’s no way that Toyota will suddenly jump into the small rear-wheel drive market with not one, but two new products, think again. Autocar reports that the inexpensive two-door will slot below the sexy FT-86 and will be based off of the GRMN Aigo Hot Hatch Concept we saw at this year’s Tokyo Auto Salon. That particular concept got its grunt from a Daihatsu 1.5-liter four-cylinder engine. More importantly, it rocked a double-wishbone rear suspension and swapped its front-wheel drive layout for a rear-driven arrangement. If the rumors are to be believed, we could see the car in 2012, just slightly ahead of the FT-86.
[Source: Autocar]
Report: Toyota considering RWD hatch to commemorate Naruse originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 10 Aug 2010 13:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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