News of a new rear-drive sub-86 mini-coupe to be revealed at this year’s Tokyo motor show raised eyebrows around the world earlier this month, but now we're hearing that Toyota has another surprise for its home motor show.
According to Japanese magazine Best Car, a Caterham 7-style open-wheel sports car – known as the 'Midget' inside the world's largest car-maker — will line up on stage next to the baby 86 and one or two other fuel-cell concepts in late October.
As you can see from this rendering courtesy of Best Car, the Midget recalls classic British sports cars such as the MG TC Midget launched in 1945 and the original 1957-1972 Lotus Seven, which spawned a series of Caterham 7 kit cars that still endure today.
Some readers may not be aware that Toyota sister brand Daihatsu also released its own 'Midget' — a three-wheeled, single-seat mini-truck — back in 1957. To create a perfect delivery vehicle for Tokyo’s narrow streets, Daihatsu then came out with a four-wheeled variant in 1996.
Fast-forward 58 years and it seems Toyota is now picking up the same Midget name and using it to describe its own lightweight four-wheeled, three-seat sports car.
Wrapped in Toyota’s interpretation of the Seven, it takes more hints from another British classic, the McLaren F1, with an interior configuration that mimics the English supercar's staggered seating layout – two rear seats behind a centrally mounted driver's seat up front.
To minimize R&D costs, Toyota has reportedly employed the 105kW 1.5-litre hybrid powertrain from the company’s hugely successful Aqua micro-car, but applied a welcome twist in the form of a rear-mounted electric motor that makes it — obviously — rear-drive.
Said to tip the scales at just 700kg, the Midget is likely to offer relatively spirited performance while using next to no fuel.
The best news? Best Car's source inside Toyota says that if the Japanese public and motoring media like what they see on stage at the Tokyo show, the Japanese giant could have this model in showrooms before the end of next year.
But why is Toyota suggesting such a radical car? Our contacts say Japan’s biggest car-maker wants to tempt the country's youth back to buying cars by nurturing interest in a new generation of compact hybrid sports cars like this open-wheel coupe and the sub-86 coupe.
According to Toyota insiders, another way the company plans to foster interest in the Midget project is to create a Japanese version of the motorcycle-engined Midget speedway racing series that have been popular on Australian and American dirt ovals for years.
While Toyota's sub-86 baby coupe is believed to be signed off and due for production by December 2016 with a target price of less than $20,000, if the Midget gets the green light it could hit the road even sooner, with a starting price of under $25,000.