Subaru and Toyota plotting AWD super hatch

Subaru and Toyota are set to follow-up the BRZ and 86 coupe with a small all-wheel drive turbocharged hatchback that draws inspiration from rally cars in their 1990s heyday.

According to Japan's Best Car magazine, the new hatchback will be Impreza-sized and powered by a Subaru-sourced 2.4-litre turbocharged four-cylinder boxer engine and come with a symmetrical all-wheel drive system.

It's set to be based on either Toyota's highly flexible TNGA architecture or the Subaru Global Platform, with a sole purpose to create a high-performance vehicle rather than a run-of-the-mill family hatch.

Expect plenty of exotic weight-saving material to be used to boost stiffness and keep the kerb weight comfortably under 1500kg.

It's thought the RAV4-derived all-wheel drive system used in the latest Toyota GR Yaris was considered but ultimately ruled out because it wouldn't be able to cope with the extra torque a powerful Subaru WRX or WRX STI replacement would require.

It would also need significant re-engineering to be adapted to work with a boxer-style engine configuration.

There's no word on power but, since in naturally aspirated form it produces a healthy 170kW and 249Nm of torque under the bonnet of the incoming second-generation BRZ, the turbocharged version is expected to comfortably produce more than 300kW and deliver peak torque of more than 500Nm.

Since the Subaru version is almost certain to carry the 'WRX' or 'WRX STI' name, it's feasible Toyota could use it to bring back the Celica it rallied to huge success in the 1990s.

Recently Toyota set enthusiasts into a tailspin after filing a fresh patent application for the famous nameplate, and now some are suggesting that following the success of the GR Yaris, a Toyota GR Celica GT-Four could be in the pipeline.

A timeline for the new models has not been revealed, but it's believed a skunkworks team of Gazoo Racing engineers working in partnership with Subaru could deliver them in less than two years.