New Toyota MR2 sports car on the way – and it’s not electric!

• New two-seater, mid-engined sports car
• Will use a new four-cylinder petrol engine
• Could arrive by 2026

A new generation of Toyota MR2 is all but confirmed, marking the Japanese brand’s return to the mid-engined sports car market for the first time since 2007.

There’s been chatter about a new two-seater, open-top Toyota sports car for a while, fuelled by the FT-Se concept car revealed in late 2023. But at this year’s Tokyo Auto Salon, Toyota confirmed to our sister site Auto Express that the sports car will return with an all-new petrol engine, possibly by 2026.

That’s a bit unusual in this day and age, with most manufacturers turning their attention to electric and hybrid technology. Other sports car makers known for their iconic petrol models are turning to batteries instead, including Lotus, Alpine and even Porsche with the new electric Cayman.

The development of the new MR2 is being undertaken by Toyota’s motorsport division, Gazoo Racing – the same people responsible for the rather brilliant GR Yaris and GR86. It will have a hand in the development of the new engine, too, which made an appearance at the Tokyo Auto Salon in the back of the wild, mid-engined GR Yaris M Concept.

Dubbed the ‘G20E’, it’s a four-cylinder turbocharged unit that Toyota hopes will be more powerful and efficient than its 2.4-litre engine used overseas. We still don’t know the capacity of the new engine, but Gazoo Racing’s head of engineering, Naohiko Saito, told us: “This engine represents the beginning of a new development that will come from motorsport before we put it into production. We always learn lots with this way of working.”

The motorsport in question will be Japan’s Super Taikyu series, where prototypes of the GR Yaris M Concept will put the new G20E through its paces. Toyota took a similar approach when developing the Lexus LFA supercar in the 2000s, honing its engine through racing.

Specifications about the engine are still unclear, but given that Toyota is aiming to improve on its existing 2.4-litre engine, we could see a minimum power figure of around 300bhp. The engine is said to produce up to 500bhp in full-fat motorsport trim, but achieving a similar figure in a road application could be tricky with modern emissions regulations.

We do know that the engine will be mounted transversely (i.e. sideways) in the new sports car, much like previous generations of MR2. It’s likely to be connected to Toyota’s new eight-speed automatic gearbox that’s recently been slotted into the GR Yaris – the likelihood of a manual gearbox is still unknown.

Perhaps most interesting is the possibility of a four-wheel drive configuration in the new MR2. That would be a drastic change from previous MR2s, all of which were rear-wheel drive only. Saito explained, “this layout is new for us, but we have found in our initial testing that the combination of an all-wheel-drive mid-ship layout offers the best layout for high-performance driving”.

What will the new Toyota MR2 look like?

Toyota has three generations of MR2 to draw inspiration from, stretching right back to the mid-1980s, so we expect the new car to sport similar mid-engineed proportions. But its styling will be brought right up to date, with the FT-Se concept serving as the starting point.

In our exclusive render image, the compact, mid-engined design of the FT-Se has been carried over, along with its muscular haunches, coupe roofline and angular details. We could see a new front-end design, however, leaning into Toyota’s current ‘hammerhead’ styling with claw-like LED running lights.

Of course, the MR2 will use a petrol engine in the middle rather than the batteries and electric motors of the FT-Se, so it will have different cooling requirements. We expect it to feature a larger front grille than the concept car to draw in as much air as possible.

Similar LED lighting to the FT-Se is likely to feature at the rear, along with aerodynamic elements like a diffuser and a small spoiler. Inside, there will be seating for two only, in keeping with the MR2 name – ‘mid-ship run-about two-seater’.

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