The sports series Toyota announced in Japan on Wednesday was a sign of good things to come for the United States.
Toyota confirmed at the launch event that the company ultimately will introduce sport-tuned versions of its standard cars to the U.S. market, according to Automotive News. Once these performance-oriented daily drivers arrive stateside, though, they won’t utilize the same branding as their JDM counterparts.
“We have to show to the world that Toyota can actually make cars that are interesting,” Toyota president, Akio Toyoda, said. “We want to satisfy customers for both mass produced cars and unique cars.”
The sport lineup in Toyota’s home country will be called the GR Series, short for Gazoo Racing, the name under which the manufacturer competes in the World Endurance Championship and World Rally Championship. But that name means very little to American consumers.
As a result, Toyota will badge them as the TRD — Toyota Racing Development — variants, as it already has established the sub-brand in the U.S. Assuming that Toyota plans to follow its GR Series blueprint faithfully, it likely also will expand its offering of aftermarket TRD performance parts.
The slightly more exciting vehicles aren’t all Toyota has in mind for the future, however. Gazoo Racing’s president Shigeki Tomoyama told Automotive News that Toyota’s performance arm plans to eventually develop a full-fledged sports car.
Thumbnail photo via Toyota
