Toyota still on track for third sports car

The man responsible for reigniting Toyota's sports car program seven years ago with the Toyota 86 coupe and now the Toyota Supra says his work is not yet finished.

Tetsuya Tada is Toyota's chief engineer for sports cars and in the past has made mention of three sports car 'brothers'.

The Toyota 86 was the first, the Supra is the second, so what about the third?

Tada-san was in Australia this week for the final part of a whistle-stop development sign-off tour with the new Supra, before its chassis and powertrain is finally green-lit for production.

So we quizzed him about whether he still has the blessing from Toyota’s global CEO Akio Toyoda for the 'third brother' in his sports car master plan.

The softly-spoken performance car guru wouldn’t outright confirm the name or type of vehicle that is coming next, but he did verify that a third sports car is still in development.

"There are lots of projects that are also going through at the same time, and our young engineers are working on them, preparing for [another] fun sports car," he said.

"But we don’t know which one will make it to production [yet]."

Tada said the third car will be the baby brother which could mean an even more affordable option than the $31,440 Toyota 86.

It was widely expected that the third vehicle would be a production version of the Toyota SF-R first revealed at the 2015 Tokyo motor show -- a compact rear-drive sports car in the vein of the Mazda MX-5 with a low power engine.

"The middle one is 86, the older brother is Supra," he explained, before cautioning that because sports cars are not traditionally profitable, the gestation period will be lengthy.

In other words, don't expect to see another Toyota sports car for several years.

"To take a sports car up to production there are a lot of hurdles," said Tada.

Based on recent murmurings of a resurrected Celica or MR2, it's entirely possible that Toyota may exhume those much-loved names for its third sports car.

"Celica, MR2 … they are all requesting these cars. The voices from the market are going to push us [in the right direction] so I would like to hear more from the market," he said.

We recently reported on speculation of an electric sports car wearing the MR2 badge, but Tada appeared to scoff at this idea.

"It's fun to read those stories," he laughed.

Both the 86 and the Supra coupes are powered by non-Toyota engines – Subaru and BMW powerplants respectively – and the big 'T' has partnered with those companies in order to reduce development time and costs.

But it's not clear whether Toyota’s third sports car will again be a collaboration with another car brand.

What is crystal clear is that is Toyota's new strategy to add a little razzle-dazzle to its model range has elevated the company from a dowdy, boring brand, to something more aspirational.

When Akio Toyoda, a self-confessed rev-head, anointed Tetsuya Tada to spearhead the brand's return to the sports car fold, he gave the man free reign to get the job done.

Once the third and final sports car emerges in the next decade, the legacy of both men will be complete.