AKIO TOYODA'S NEW MR2 WILL BE UNVEILED THIS WEEK

For years now, rumors have flown that Toyota may bring back the MR2 mid-engine sports car. They can be partly attributed to the eternal hope of car enthusiasts for more sports cars, but Toyota gets some blame, too. The company has occasionally leaned into rumors, such as the Toyota-produced short-form anime series Grip, which featured the MR2 name on a background list of "future" cars. The company's adding more fuel to the fire with an interview clip teasing some kind of seemingly MR2-related reveal at the Tokyo Auto Salon.

The Question Is Whether This Car Is A New MR2, Or An Old One

Gazoo Racing (now without the Toyota prefix) shared the interview in question to X. It features Toyota staff speaking with Akio "Morizo" Toyoda about some new car that the automaker's chair recently obtained. The interview is above, and, naturally, is in Japanese, but we've provided a translation of the interview below.

The only Toyota that could really fit the description of being mid-engine and having two seats is the MR2, so at least that part is clear. What's not entirely clear is what sort of MR2 they're talking about.

On the one hand, with the Tokyo Auto Salon being such a hot spot for modified cars, it could be that Toyoda acquired an old MR2 and has been upgrading it with the help of the company and its engineers. The discussion about wanting "to do something more with it" sounds like it could be about customizing and upgrading. Plus, it's not like Toyota hasn't shown nifty restomods before, such as its electric and hydrogen takes on the AE86 Sprinter Trueno from a few years ago.

On the other hand, maybe it's a preview of an actual new MR2. Supporting that hypothesis is the fact that Toyota filed a flurry of trademarks around the world for the names "MR2" and "MR-S." The latter name previously appeared on the third-generation MR2 in some markets. Certainly, trademark filings can just be the company protecting a name just in case it wants to use it, but the timing is curious.

There Are Interesting Possibilities For A New MR2

A little more than two years ago, Toyota showed a concept called the FT-Se. It easily could've worn the MR2 name with its low-slung shape and generally mid-engine proportions. Being an electric car, though, it didn't have an engine per se. The design also looked fairly grounded for a concept, and someone from Gazoo Racing even confirmed plans to put it into production. With the gap in time between that initial reveal and this year's Tokyo Auto Salon, it seems plausible we could see a mostly ready prototype.

We wouldn't completely rule out the possibility of something with a combustion engine, either. Toyota brought a strange mid-engine GR Yaris prototype to the Tokyo Auto Salon last year. It was a fully-functional test car, too, suggesting that the company has been doing some sort of development work for a vehicle, be it for competition or production. The car even had a turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder, rather than the 1.6-liter three-cylinder used in the regular GR Yaris and GR Corolla.

We won't have to wait long to find out what Toyota has in store. The company will have a press conference on January 9, the start of the show, and we'll surely see it then.

2026-01-08T05:09:38Z