Toyota mini MR sports car coming in 2025?

Levi

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I really like what I see so far. If I weren’t such a fatso, I’d consider one as a DD. Once again, I think Toyota has a winner.

The only thing that could be a real bummer is the rumored 60k+ price tag. This car shouldn’t be more than 45k imo.
It is a little big and heavy at 4.4m and 1300 kg. 4.2m and 1.100 kg is good.
 

NomadDan

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The MR2 sounds fantastic! Apparently they are also saying it will be non-hybrid and have AWD. I question the accuracy of this though. A transverse mid-engine car will have the transaxle and left and right CV axles to the rear of the engine. To get power to the front wheels, they’d have to run a driveshaft though the block, which won’t happen. Maybe they could run it through the oil pan, but there doesn’t seem to be clearance for this either. I can’t think of any non-hybrid transverse mid-engine car that had AWD. I don’t think it exists.

I think the MR2 will either be AWD with a hybrid powertrain and front electric motor, or it will be non-hybrid with RWD.
 

ssun30

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The MR2 sounds fantastic! Apparently they are also saying it will be non-hybrid and have AWD. I question the accuracy of this though. A transverse mid-engine car will have the transaxle and left and right CV axles to the rear of the engine. To get power to the front wheels, they’d have to run a driveshaft though the block, which won’t happen. Maybe they could run it through the oil pan, but there doesn’t seem to be clearance for this either. I can’t think of any non-hybrid transverse mid-engine car that had AWD. I don’t think it exists.

I think the MR2 will either be AWD with a hybrid powertrain and front electric motor, or it will be non-hybrid with RWD.
Aren't all Group B mid engine AWD cars transverse engine? It's just a transverse front engine AWD driving in reverse.

Allegedly Toyota developed a mid engine GR Yaris as modern Group B homologation car but that project got cancelled and changed to the MR2.

I just realized only the Peugeot 205 T16 is transverse engine. Their solution is to offset the engine so much it's completely on the right side of the center line, so it doesn't interfere with the drivetrain.
 
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Sulu

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Aren't all Group B mid engine AWD cars transverse engine? It's just a transverse front engine AWD driving in reverse.

Allegedly Toyota developed a mid engine GR Yaris as modern Group B homologation car but that project got cancelled and changed to the MR2.
No, a transverse mid-engine car has the engine from the transverse front-engine car moved from the front to the rear with no other configuration change. Doing so maintains the location relative to the primary driven axle (in front of the front driven axle for FWD cars to in front of the rear driven axle for rear mid-engine cars). "Driving in reverse" would place the engine behind the rear axle.
 

Sulu

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So that driveshaft goes through the transmission.

It must be a short engine to allow a centrally-mounted driveshaft.
 

ssun30

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I just read the latest article on BestCar and they said the engine will be longitudinal mount.
 

NomadDan

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Oh man, looks like I missed some replies here. Sorry guys.

Those Group B cars are interesting. I don’t follow Rally much and didn’t know about that class. That Peugeot driveline is fascinating.

A longitudinal engine in the MR2 is intriguing, but makes some sense. I assume the Lexus IS will get the 2.0 turbo engine and AWD, so Toyota could drop that in the MR2 and just mount everything backwards. They could use the same engine, transmission, and transfer case. Put the ring gear on the opposite sides of the front/rear differentials so the wheels turn the correct directions, and off they go. It makes more sense from a production standpoint, imo. That would also put the transmission and transfer case under the front seats, and the front of the engine would be facing the rear (handy for maintenance).

Other option would be to partner with Porsche and use a Cayman transmission, although to my knowledge the Cayman transmission is just RWD.
 

Levi

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Oh man, looks like I missed some replies here. Sorry guys.

Those Group B cars are interesting. I don’t follow Rally much and didn’t know about that class. That Peugeot driveline is fascinating.

A longitudinal engine in the MR2 is intriguing, but makes some sense. I assume the Lexus IS will get the 2.0 turbo engine and AWD, so Toyota could drop that in the MR2 and just mount everything backwards. They could use the same engine, transmission, and transfer case. Put the ring gear on the opposite sides of the front/rear differentials so the wheels turn the correct directions, and off they go. It makes more sense from a production standpoint, imo. That would also put the transmission and transfer case under the front seats, and the front of the engine would be facing the rear (handy for maintenance).

Other option would be to partner with Porsche and use a Cayman transmission, although to my knowledge the Cayman transmission is just RWD.
Cayman is going BEV, current will remain, so no AWD.

Does that mean a new ICE IS is coming? Hope a wagon too.
 

carguy420

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The car is different every 3 months.
Let's see how many of Best Car's rumours will turn out to be true or false lol. Like the rumour of Toyota, Daihatsu and Suzuki developing a 1.0L turbo mid engine sports car has turned into the 3 of them developing a front engine rear wheel drive sports car based on the Vision Copen concept. Honestly, the only Best Car rumour that I feel like can be trusted is Toyota making a new gen Celica GT-4, because of how much Toyota has hinted at the return of the Celica GT-4.