Being a native-born Texan, when I drew my first breath I was endowed with certain inalienable rights, and that among these were an appreciation for good brisket, a wariness of anyone who prefers mild salsa, and a pursuit of happiness that often includes jokes about other places in Texas. While I will defend the honor of any part of Texas against the vituperation of someone from, like, Delaware or whatever, it’s my God-given right to make cracks about Waco.
Having attended my fair share of debate tournaments and football games in the various Dallas suburbs, I have my biases. If you’d have asked me what I first thought of when someone mentioned Frisco, I’d have said it was one of the only places in America you could walk from a Whataburger to an In-N-Out Burger. It turns out it’s also home to a now not-so-secret garage where Lexus dealers were treated to a glimpse of Toyota’s GR supercar, and will soon become a hub of that new brand.
The Morning Dump will not all be Texas, because the world is (slightly) bigger than The Lone Star State. Take Hungary; that’s a place. In particular, it’s a place that’s been on the receiving in of a huge amount of Chinese investment. There’s a new sheriff in town, so what does that mean for companies like BYD?
While China is contemplating its investment in Hungary, Japanese automakers like Honda are still putting money in China. Specifically, Honda is killing its EVs in the United States while it comes out with new electric cars for China.
One of the weird cars I’d like to own one day is a Roland Garros Peugeot 205. I’m just like that. I wouldn’t kick a Renault 4 Roland-Garros E-Tech out of the garage for eating madeleines if you catch my drift.
Inside The GR Garage
View this post on Instagram
Akio Toyoda loves sports cars and motorsports, which is obvious when you look at a Toyota lineup that’s moved from beige to bitching during his tenure as the company’s CEO. One of his most audacious ventures is the GR GT, a six-figure hybrid supercar meant to compete with the Mustang GTDs, Porsche 911 GT3s, and Corvette ZR1Xes of the world.
With 641 horsepower from its 4.0-liter V8 and single electric motor, it’ll be the fastest thing from Toyota since the LFA. That was a Lexus. This new thing is a GR and will have its own GR-branding. Who is going to sell it?
That’s where the secret garage in Frisco, not far from Toyota’s North American HQ, becomes necessary. The United States is a key market for the GR brand, but it’s going to be something new for dealers who have made a career on Camrys, RAV4s, ES350s.
Prior to the reveal of the GT, a prototype was quietly sent to Frisco, where a huge facility was created to house the new car (allegedly, it’s the old Dude Perfect building). Automotive News got an early preview and describes the thought process:
For Lexus dealers, signing up means investment and dedicating dealership space to GR models. The products will be as radically different from the existing lineup as the short-lived Lexus LFA was from an ES sedan. It also means attracting a very different customer, said Andrew Gilleland, senior vice president of automotive operations at Toyota Motor North America.
“That [GR GT] buyer is a high-performance car enthusiast and collector who values race-bred authenticity, rarity and emotional driving,” Gilleland said. “They’re looking for extreme performance on the track and on the road, and something different from the typical European supercar crowd. These aren’t just luxury buyers, they’re enthusiasts, track day drivers and racing fans.”
Scores of Lexus dealers from around the country have already toured what the automaker has named the GR Experience Center here over the last several months. So far, more than 100 have taken the initial step to acquire a franchise, a spokesperson told Automotive News.
This is a small volume car, so Toyota-Lexus dealers aren’t going to have to build-out totally new buildings for the car, but can use existing facilities. This keeps the potential investment down to a lower level for any dealer who plans to make the jump.
Here’s one more interesting tidbit:
[D]ealers who have visited the experience center are being told that there will be other GR-branded performance vehicles in the future to bolster the fledgling brand’s lineup.
Obviously, we already have the GR Corolla and RAV4 GR Sport. I wonder, though, if this might not be the new Supra or maybe the next MR2-type object? That this is happening in Frisco, Texas of all places is a little amusing to me, because I think of Frisco as a place where nothing happens.
Are Chinese Automakers Still Welcome In Hungary?
The European Union, as a concept, is a union of countries with remarkably different fates in the 20th century. While there are divisions between more and less liberal populations, as well as wealthy and less-wealthy countries, the biggest disparity is often where the Soviet army stopped after WWII.
I love Hungary, and have passed many great hours with friends there drinking Fröccs and taking in the baths. Hungarians are a lovely people, by and large, and it’s been a little hard to watch them stifled under an increasingly Russia-aligned and often autocratic government. These same conditions made Hungary, which has open borders for trade with other EU countries, a perfect landing place for a ton of Chinese investment. Both BYD and battery maker CATL have placed their biggest European projects in Hungary (you can see the appeal for pro-censorship BYD).
Hungarians, by a large margin, overturned the existing government and gave challenger Peter Magyar’s more pro-EU Tisza party a supermajority. What does this mean for Chinese automakers? Manager Magazin (translated) explains the challenge:
Officially, little is known about the potential China policy of Magyar’s TISZA party. Much suggests that Magyar will pragmatically allow the massive Chinese investments in key sectors such as e-mobility, batteries, and infrastructure to continue – not least because they have become crucial for growth and jobs. CATL and BYD have created thousands of jobs with their operations and aim to make Hungary one of the most important European locations for electromobility – Magyar will not easily jeopardize this.
At the same time, Magyar is likely to emphasize greater transparency and stronger European integration of China policy. He could, for example, try to make existing agreements more open, subject them to stronger controls, and link them more clearly to Hungarian and European interests.
Chinese automakers need to be held to the same standards as everyone else, and the sooner that happens the better it’ll be for everyone.
Check Out The Honda Insight EV For China
Here in the United States, we get exactly no Honda EVs these days, once all the Prologues are sold. We’ll probably get more one day. Maybe. In the interim, the Honda Insight lives on as an electric car in China that’ll debut at the Beijing Auto Show this week. From the press release:
The all-new Insight was developed as an EV with a distinctive character, which commands a strong presence and offers exceptional customer comfort. Its exterior styling is instantly recognizable for its unique character and features a sharp, yet flowing form that evokes a sense of powerful and dynamic driving performance, intending to draw attention naturally on the street in urban areas.
The cabin features a package and interior design that ensures a comfortable and relaxing ride not only for the driver but also for all passengers, offering a high-quality and valuable space realized by a wide range of comfort features. Moreover, without compromising the joy of driving and sporty driving performance unique to Honda, the all-new Insight realizes a range per charge of 535 km (332 miles) in the WLTC mode*1, offering a sufficient range for a wide variety of everyday driving situations, from daily commuting and shopping to weekend drives.
Honda has seen a downturn in sales in China, and recently shut down one of its JV plants building combustion-powered cars. The Insight was developed with Honda partner Dongfeng Motor and is based on the co-developed e:NS2.
C’est Le Meilleur
The Autopian has written a lot about the vintage Renault 4, but not much about the Renault 4 E-Tech. Perhaps we’re just too distracted by the Renault 5 E-Tech and new Twingo. You know what’s a good way to grab my attention? A Roland Garros Edition! French automakers love making tributes to the tennis facility where the French Open is played.
“In this “sporty chic” interpretation, the Renault 4 Roland-Garros E-Tech electric show-car extends the very atmosphere of the tournament through its choice of materials and colour. The opening canvas roof evokes the open sky above the courts, a roofless space where players breathe as freely as spectators. Clay is subtly present in the terracotta accents, the tournament’s foundational surface and signature of its identity. Even the gestures become a tribute: the e-pop shifter gear lever tip, inspired by the grip of tennis rackets, turns driving into a direct reference to tennis. The lightweight, structured white technical knit fabric echoes performance attire. The blue stitching and finishes reinforce the idea of a sport that is both demanding and elegant, where technical mastery elevates style.”
It’ll just be a show car, but you can buy the Renault R5 Roland-Garros.
What I’m Listening To While Writing TMD
If you were looking for a modern take on Rosemary Clooney, you could hardly do better than Icelanding jazz pop/jazz star Laufey. Her latest video for “Madwoman” includes skating star Alyssa Liu and that guy from the show Alanis can’t stop talking about.
The Big Question
What should the next performance-oriented Toyota be?
Top photo: Toyota
I think a TuRD Ferguson could be an off-road variant that would easily get a certain celebrity to market it. Just gotta sort out the plumbing.
Too bad both Burt Reynolds and Norm McDonald have passed away to do the commercial
Wow Norm was young. I figured he was around still.
He’s dead?? I didn’t even know he was sick!
He came to a draw with cancer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbO53DJC75Q
Norm Macdonald: I’m pretty sure if you die,cancer dies same time, that’s not a loss. That’s a draw.
Norm was a gift. A real treasure!
I’m starting to grow tired of all the hype around “car guy” executives. Yeah cool performance stuff gets made but it’s all just the stuff that they want, from the view of a rich executive for whom it will be their 6th car. I don’t want want a GR GT, I’ll never afford that, I want a GR Celica. I don’t want a Mustang GTD, I want a cheaper Mustang GT, I don’t want a ZR1X, I want a Camaro that is actually usable as daily transportation.
There are enough toys for the super rich give us something that a recent college grad enthusiast could reasonably buy and actually use as their only car.
I think that all comes down to a few things:
1. Income inequality. Only the top 10% of Americans have money for new sports cars. No one is buying the sports cars that are even close to middle class accessible – Z, Supra, Miata.
2. Traffic. If you are going to be stuck in traffic all the time, you want to be up high rather than down low. Going fast doesn’t matter either – unless you have money and time to get out on backroads. See point 1.
3. Risk aversion in society. People aren’t as comfortable with folks driving anywhere near the limit of the average commuter, let alone any modern sports car, on public roads.
4. All cars are fast now. Speed is less of a draw when even generic cars will do 0-60 in under <6 seconds. It was totally different back when you had to have a sports car to get there.
I agree, but sports cars have low sales volumes no matter the price, so the only way to make money is to sell them at high prices to people who can afford toy cars. For instance, even when using an old platform Subaru no longer uses for any other model that can be built on the same line as Crosstreks and Foresters and adapting an existing engine to higher rpm, I have no idea how they make money on the GR86/BRZ.
But, supposedly, there’s a GR Celica coming. Toyota is one of the few companies that can afford to have low end halo cars without worries about profit and I’d bet it’s still a fight with the BoD.
True about the sales volumes. The platform sharing is what made sport compacts and hot hatches viable. They were based on a mainstream model that sold by the 10s or maybe 100s of thousands. Adding a performance variant didn’t cost that much to do but could command a transaction price of thousands above the base car. Mustangs and Camaros also sold in higher numbers, but they were seen as something that could reasonably be someone’s only car, that’s not a reality in a world where coupes are nearly dead and just seen as pure sports cars rather than a body style preference, hell in today’s world anything that isn’t a pickup or suv is seen as impractical. All this to say I’m not sure what the answer is here. Maybe enthusiast offerings could’ve lived if they got more practical rather than more sporty. Perhaps an SS version of the Trax could be a modern Cobalt SS stand in, maybe the Mustang would sell more if it got an additional set of doors. I mean Dodge sold a lot of Chargers to people who probably didn’t car if they were sporty or not despite being related to a 707hp rwd sedan.
It seems like the sportier offerings got more sporty or extreme performance oriented because the only interested parties left of the people who actually buy new cars are the few who care about driving (and we were never that numerous to begin with). In the past, the sporting nature of sports cars were tempered by the group of primarily image conscious people who just wanted people to think they were cool and who made up the large majority of the sales, which is why sports cars tended to get fat and bloated or become something different entirely with succeeding generations and a large market existed for sporty versions of bland cars that were sometimes legit, sometimes 90% appearance package. That once largely mocked group of sporty/s car buyers have since moved on to “cool” trucks and SUVs, which gutted the sporty/s car market. On top of that, costs to produce cars have gone up, so prices have risen, making a sports car a stretch for too many. Many people have also expanded their range of hobbies, leaving both less money for a toy car and the likely need for more practicality to accommodate the other hobbies. Even the places and times to enjoy driving have shrunk way down. Another thing is that home ownership is where most of the wealth of the middle class is concentrated and they want to protect that, which means DIY projects that a sports car is not a good fit for. Then there’s the modern state of uncertainty we live in that could mean someone ends up having to keep their vehicle for a decade or more, so they need to think of getting something that is versatile and adaptable to almost anything that might happen.
Enthusiasts complain about things like the ’86 is “slow” or the GR Corolla way too expensive or “if they got rid of the power windows, they could afford to throw a turbo on it like [insert BS youtuber] and charge $5k less, then I’d buy one” because so many of them seem immune to understanding the tiniest bit about the industry, and while I’m not saying there’s no room to complain, these people should understand that it’s amazing we get anything that isn’t exotic at all anymore and, if they want to get anything remotely interesting on the market, they need choke down a compromise and buy one (or at least admit they have to choose something practical) instead of making lame excuses why it isn’t good enough for their magnificent I-only-drive-sideways online fantasy lives. The Miata—the Miata!—sells well under 10k/year today. Mazda has made it such a part of their identity that it would be tough to let it go, but I wonder if they think about it, since it can’t be worth it based only on the bottom line. Then again, it’s Mazda, and they still waste money trying to make rotaries a thing, so who knows?
Luckily for us on the bottom end of the car market, Toyota offers the GR86/BRZ and, Honda has the Si, Mazda has the Miata, Hyundai has the Elantra N, and VW has the GTI still. Plus you have the faster variants of those hot hatches all cheaper than the average new car cost too. Seeing that Toyota has invested a ton of money to make the GR Corolla in another factory to keep up with actual demand gives me good feelings that they’re serious about going onto a gen 2. Mazda execs have continually said without the Miata there is no Mazda. I have lived with all of those except the GR86 and Elantra N in my post college life. If the gen 2 GR86 was on the market when I graduated it would have been the easy button answer for the perfect daily driver. I’m quite happy with my Civic Type R, yet can’t wait for my GR Corolla to arrive in the fall. While our choices are more limited than 10 years ago, it is still a good time to be a driving enthusiast.
“For Lexus dealers, signing up means investment and dedicating dealership space to GR models.”
So are the GR Corolla and 86 being moved into this new GR sub-brand? Can I technically buy a new Corolla at a Lexus dealer in the near future?
“What should the next performance-oriented Toyota be?”
Maybe consider folding the TRD pro series into GR and making an Armada Nismo competitor out of the Land Cruiser, Toyota. You know you want to!
Matt, the best thing about Frisco is that there’s an HEB there
That’s not saying much. There are two in Beaumont.
That’s not to disparage HEB. In my experience, as grocery store chains go, they are second only to Rochester (NY)-based Wegman’s. And I don’t think Weggie’s sells gasoline.
I wish we had either one out here in the PNW.
Oh I was aiming for Frisco, not HEB. HEB is a treasure
And I was half-heartedly aiming at Beaumont, if that wasn’t clear.
And I do have to say Beaumont was trying (and largely succeeding) to get better during the six or so years I lived there. When I first visited that area in the early 2000s, I thought it was perhaps the saddest place I’d ever been in the US.
HEB is a class act. When Hurricane Harvey sat on SE Texas for a week and caused widespread flooding, fuel deliveries were cut off. The HEB nearest me ran out of regular and then sold their remaining inventory of mid-grade and premium for the posted price of regular. There are a lot of locals who will never forget that act of kindness.
Yep, it’s the best, it’s the only place I shop anymore. It’s stupidly crowded in the area where I live, but that’s because it’s newer and there’s only a couple here in DFW. They’re building one about 1/8 mile from my house, and it’s the best/worst news; it’ll be amazing to have one so close, but I’m also going to have to spend an extra 20 minutes in traffic on my way home
PR team working overtime on that Insight press release.
Putting in the time that the design team didn’t.
That this is happening in Frisco, Texas of all places is a little amusing to me, because I think of Frisco as a place where nothing happens.
Especially rain. Currently in a D3 Extreme drought situation.
The PGA moved it’s headquarters there in 2022 just in time to watch the whole place dry up. If you need something to do there you probably can get a hose and help water the fairways!
Nobody:
Every Texan Everywhere: I’m from Texas
This is 100% true. Teaxas is the only place I’ve lived in the US that really wants to make sure you never forget you’re in Texas. I made a bet with my wife after we moved here that We couldn’t drive more than 1 mile without seeing something that said it was Texas. I won.
The only time I’ve ever used the Texan thing is talking about BBQ, because a.) I’m not from Texas, I only live here, and b.) because no shit it’s better than anywhere else.
Texans also understand that there’s chili and there’s chili with beans. So BBQ and chili are the two topics where I can usually agree with Texans.
As a New Mexican I scoff at their “chili” and their “salsas” and “Tex-Mex” cuisine. Chile is spelled with an “e” and it comes red or green.
Chili is a dish, Chile is a pepper. Chili comes from (probably, like all food things it’s disputed) Texas, a mix of cultures really, Mexican, SPanish and Native American most likely, though some people will tell you differently. Most notably you get it as chili con carne. Chile is an indignous Mexican term from the Nahuatl language, used mostly for the pepper, con carne obviously being Mexican Spanish.
And as someone growing about 14 pepper varieties right now, I’ll tell you that only a few of them are red or green. Jalapenos, Serranos, Pequin and some Poblanos. I have a yellow serrano, a purple jalapeno, sugar drop orange, a yellow lemon spice jalapeno (these rule), some purple cayenne (jury’s out on these, they’re not fully grown yet), some white and some orange habenero, a couple of Hallow’s Eve plants, and one that’s supposed to be orange/pink striped. We’ll see in a month or so.
If you’re from New Mexico, you need to look into the Chile Pepper Institue in Las Cruces, it’s doing God’s work in breeding peppers, coming up with new peppers, just all kinds of amazing stuff. 4 of the plants I’m growing right now came from their seeds. You can buy them online-
https://chilepepperinstitute.ecwid.com/Seeds-c85441005
Seriously amazing stuff. The lemon spice jalapenos I’m growing came from there and they’re outsandingly delicious
And here I thought Chile was a country in South America. 😉
Does NMSU or the Institute patent (and collect royalties) like a lot of other universities do for breeding commercially popular varieties of fruit and vegetables?
I would assume they do, they have a lot of peppers that start with Nu-Mex in the name, and those are in house creations. So I would imagine that being proprietary, they get a royalty out of it. But if you’re growing them yourself for making salsas etc, you’re just going to grow from any seed you harvest (like I do). I hope they make a lot of money from them, because they really do an amazing amount of work in breeding and coming up with new varieties.
Chile is so much more than a pepper, good sir. I should have been more specific as my reference was specifically to New Mexico Hatch chile peppers grown in southern NM, and it’s varietal brothers grown in the northern parts of the state. They come green or red. If you order New Mexican food (or really any food) in NM, you will be asked “red or green,” or “red, green, or Christmas?” There’s no wrong answer to those questions.
Ha! I’m growing a No. 9 I started last year! I only got about a 7-8 pods from it last year, but it’s already flowering and it looks like I’m going to have a lot more this time around. When I first moved here, I went to a Central Market looking for something specific for a wine dinner, and it was right in the middle of Hatch season, and they had loads of them in a barrel roaster that they were selling. They were fantastic, so I totally get it. I started growing the No. 9 because it’s supposed to be the original. It’s delicious, not spicy but a little smokey, great fruit taste to it, and you can stuff and roast it.
Why not both? Christmas is my favorite 🙂 Tex-mex is good; New Mexican is even better.
Uh-oh. BBQ wars. I’ll take KC BBQ over anything I ever had in Texas.
Years ago I ate at LC’s in Kansas City, and it was amazing. It’s in an old gas station, and there’s so much grease in the air from rendered fat that you pretty much slide into the building. It was so, so good. Easily the best I tried in Kansas.
But I’m sorry, it’s not as good as Goldies, Burnt Bean, LeRoy and Lewis, or Barb’s
Funny enough, LC’s is actually across the border in Missouri. Technically still Kansas City… Joe’s KC Bar-B-Que (formerly Oklahoma Joe’s Bar-B-Que and Anthony Bourdain’s favorite) on W 47th Ave on the Kansas side of the border is also in an old gas station.
I imagine we’ll hear from fans of BBQ from various other regions.
The only BBQ styles I don’t really like seem to all be from the Carolinas. I don’t like their vinegar-forward sauces.
*ahem*
That’s eastern North Carolina, those depraved ghouls. Western NC, for all its backwardness, at least has the decency and sense to use tomato-based sauces. Most reputable establishments amid-state will carry at least one of each.
Smithfield’s is not what I consider a reputable establishment.
My wife and I were toying with the idea of moving to Asheville back in 2019 after a really nice long weekend there. Probably best we didn’t.
I love vinegar, and I’m fine with vinegar forward BBQ sauce. I’m not a fan of the overly sweet sauces like you get in Oklahoma, but they still have their place. It’s really just the white sauce they use in Alabama that’s an affront to every taste bud in my mouth, that stuff belongs in the trash and nothing will convince me otherwise.
I once had a meal in St. Louis at Salt and Smoke so good it’s rumored that I had tears in my eyes. A coworker said “That’s the happiest I’ve ever seen you. Then again it may be the only time I’ve ever seen you happy.”
You misspelled Memphis! Our sketchy neighbor to the west might be the IRL Liberty City but they sure make some damn good BBQ. Nashville’s BBQ scene has exploded and has some great BBQ joints as well, especially Peg Leg Porkers and Martin’s. Cary from Peg Leg has cooked at the James Beard house and is often in the media. Decatur,AL has incredible BBQ as well.
They’re like Harvard grads except all Texans had to do was be born.
TBQ: A new Celica 2+2 liftback performance-oriented hybrid, possibly with AWD, that’s cheaper than the Honda Prelude.
Is that better than if they were “often Russia-aligned and increasingly autocratic government”?
It’s not but you get to pick which one you want.
I’ve had four MR2s, one of each shape plus a spare mk1 because my brother borrowed my first one. Do not lend cars to my brother.
As Lotus have given up on small mid-engined cars my next one is going to have to be a new MR2, but I need Toyota to actually make it. A coupe with luggage space at least as useful as the mk1 please.
And why not put the engine under glass this time? I like seeing engines.
Unfortunately, these days all you would see is the plastic engine cover.
The last engine I worked on was the Emira V6, and the visible part of that is the top of the supercharger, no cover.
Sure, the I4 version just has a plastic bin lid, but it’s possible to make attractive engines if you try.
Didn’t the C7 Corvette ZR1 also have a visible supercharger?
I don’t disagree at all that it’s possible to make attractive engines. The original Taurus SHO’s Yamaha V6 is quite the sight, and the Alfa V6 Busso is widely regarded as automotive art. Hell, the twin-cam 1.8 in today’s SBSD Tracer is pretty easy on the eyes. But car makers today don’t seem too interested in polishing up their intake manifolds and valve covers. Too cheap and easy to just mold a $5 plastic cover.
The Busso was indeed lovely and my GTV6 had a lightly-tinted window on the hood so you could see it.
Ahh the Emira, what a lovely car! I’ve given serious thought to getting one in BRG or dark green. I actually thought of the Emira earlier this morning when a similar Toyota-model skirmish broke out on another auto blog and the Camry engine’s capabilities/pep became the hill that many were willing to die on.
I’m not a fan of V6s, but having worked on the Lotus tweaked version of that engine, including the 500ish bhp race version, I’m very fond of it.
Makes a great noise down a 3” pipe with just 2” of perforated pipe as a silencer.
I’ll bet it does, you lucky bastard!
Hear me out: GR Crown Signia Wagon
To be followed by a GR Prius, which pairs performance, efficiency and a Bauhaus aesthetic (if you don’t get it right away, let it simmer for a minute.)
And it must come in Acadama Brown(named after the volcanic soil).
…that Renault filled with tennis balls seems like something out of a dog’s dreams. I am now imagining several very happy dogs doing their best to cover every single one of them in slobber.
As for next performance…thing…from Toyota, I dunno. For the street, something slotting in between the GT and the 86. Mustang/Z levels of performance and price. For the track: Indycar Engines/Power Units/whatever we’re calling them now.
Next Toyota? AWD PHEV MR2
I typically want RWD but AWD might be good if the new one had the tiny wheel base of the OG ones, and a whole lot more power.:-)
I’d very much like a new Soarer EV please in the style of the original ones: a Japanese Techno-Thunderbird.
“What should the next performance-oriented Toyota be?”
A next-gen Supra that ditches the BMW design and replaces it with a 6 cyl version of the FRS/86/BRZ.
And at the same time, the ’86’ will get its name changed to ‘Celica’.
Yes please.
I can dig it
Not unless they put a liftback on it.
I always forget the 86 is not a liftback; criminal.
Well, they already have the TuRD Hammer coming down the pipe. Now it’s time for the Sienna TRD Slammer, or the TRD Hauler. Or maybe the Sienna GR-8, since it seats eight.
The Sienna could just be the TuRD Herder
Who’s scruffy-looking?
Heated Rivalry is everywhere in my life, Peloton just released a commercial, now The Autopian lol
Toyota Camry GR with the hybrid performance oriented powertrain from the Crown.
So Toyota is creating the polar opposite sub brand to Scion which will likely kick around for a while before being unceremoniously dumped. You can spend $100k for a reconditioned AE86 or a GR GT. Which do you choose?
I’m up for a new MR2, but I doubt it will recapture the magic of the first two generations.
When did Dude Perfect stop being a thing?I haven’t kept up with them, but they seemed to big to fail at some point.
I think they switched to making sanitary wipes.
I had to look them up on Wikipeda, I got bored and stopped reading, but looks like they went the VC route, which seems to be the death of creativity. References: Hoonigan and to some extent Donut; though Donut seems to have navigated it a little better. Once you start trying to commercialize creativity for corporate overlords, it seems to not work for some reason?
A sport sedan/wagon preferably based on the GR86. Modern sport sedans have too much power or are FWD. If they can capture the magic of an E46 330i ZHP in a modern package, they’d get a real unique offering in the market
A GR86 wagon that could fit real humans in the back seat would be highly desired by many dads with 1-2 kids.
I’d totally buy one.
Or, you know, a WRX hatchback.
Subaru: “WRX hatchback? Never heard of her!”
It would be a new E51 Corolla Liftback (underappreciated gem from 1970s Toyota, IMO)
Discussions on the GR Corolla forums keep going back to Celica and/or MR2 next.
Frisco is literally across the street from their US HQ in Plano. It’s not like they built it in a remote part of the state.
How about a new Celica All-Trac?
Make it a hybrid with a turbo!
The next performance Toyota should be a Raptor/TRX fighting Tundra. (I do not actually believe that but wanted to think of something crazy)
Does one exist someplace already I don’t know about?
Yes, they are going to call it the TRD Hammer and it’s currently in development
TURD HAMMER!!!
They were also considering calling it TRD Quake. The jokes write themselves!
AKA Mudslide
MR2!
And keep it relatively low cost and nimble. The GR Corolla 3-pot is more than adequate power and hook it up to just the rear wheels.