It’s been speculated in recent months that Toyota was looking to turn TMG (Toyota Motorsport GmbH) into an in-house tuning arm – kind-of like what AMG is to Mercedes-Benz.
However, according to a recent insider report, it seems that the Japanese giant’s plans have changed and instead of becoming a performance sub-brand, it seems that the direction now is to provide “ongoing vehicle development assistance to Toyota across a wide range of areas.”
What this means is that TMG would still work towards creating sportier, more enjoyable cars, but that this character would be infused into all Toyota products and not limited to TMG-branded cars just yet.
The news, obtained by Australia’s Motoring, come to contradict previous rumors that already saw that Lexus LS TMG Sport 650 as a direct rival to the Mercedes-Benz S63 that was just one step away from production…
The source quoted TMG’s business operations director, Rob Leupen: “I don’t think you will find in the next four or five years a TMG car in any dealership,” he announced, though he made it clear that they “are not just on performance, we go everywhere.”
In regards to the enraged LS 650, he made it clear that it’s not ever going into production in that form, due to it being “a showcase, it had nearly everything changed; there was new suspension, we changed aero, the V8 turbo, the changes we made in the passenger area. This showed TMC [Toyota Motor Company] what we could do and that in the country where we are located and the technology that is around us means we could do high performance cars.”
Currently, TMG is working on what is believed to be a dual-clutch transmission for the RC F and IS F models – it, however, is still some two-to-three years away.
By Andrei Nedelea
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