New Supra Won’t be a Hybrid: Scion FR-S Engineer Says

According to an interview with the brains behind the the Scion FR-S, the rumored upcoming Supra will not be a hybrid despite a recent concept sports car from Toyota.

“I think current hybrid technology is not good for road sports cars,” FR-S chief engineer Tetsuya Tada said during an interview with Top Gear.

The Scion FR-S has reminded the buying public that Toyota can make spectacular sports cars. With the limited power and small footprint of the FR-S, there is a tremendous opening in the automaker’s product line for a larger and more powerful sports car. The FR-S features various references to the classic AE-86, this hole could be filled by a car with an even more important model name from Toyota’s past: the Supra.

Tada does mention his “next sports car.”  When describing the next car he says “I want to make a big… ‘wow.’ I want to give the world a shock.”

When asked directly about  a new Supra, Tada says “Of course, anything is possible.”  Yoshinori Sasaki, another engineer associated with the FR-S said, “It’ll be a different avenue of sports car from the GT 86.” He is adamant that this new Supra will use a pure gasoline drivetrain.

Sasaki also stresses their support of the Supra’s traditional front-engine rear-drive layout, “rear-engined, rear-driven cars – and even mid-ship designs – are OK. But if you want to make an enjoyable sports car, it should be front-engined, rear-drive.”

Toyota’s GRMN Sports Hybrid Concept II was hypothosized to be the next Supra but it is mid-engined and a hybrid. The new car will likely be the BMW 6 Series-based sports car that Toyota is developing with the German automaker.

[Source: Top Gear]