Toyota and Subaru are jointly developing a small, lightweight sports car and a prototype may appear at October’s Tokyo Motor Show.
According to a well placed source, this “Toyobaru” is effectively a smaller version of the B9 Scrambler that Subaru built for the 2003 Tokyo Show.
It’ll be a B-class car, so about the same size as Toyota’s now defunct MR2 but the idea is that it will be front-engined, with an Impreza-based 2.0-litre flat-four providing the power.
Plans for the car are by no means cut and dried, however. A prototype has been signed off but no definite timescale to show it in public has been laid down. So it might appear at Tokyo, or it might not.
This as yet unnamed car is also expected to get Symmetrical 4WD, to keep with Subaru’s Brand DNA and could eventually sell both as a Toyota and a Subaru.
Subaru is looking at a target price under ¥2.0 million (£8260) so undercutting the Mazda MX-5 and word is, the car is very sporting and youth-orientated.
Subaru also has a small, super-eco five-door hatch concept lined up for the Tokyo Show, slightly bigger than Toyota’s Yaris and it’s conceivable the new light weight sports car could share this same chassis.
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