Over two years since Toyota and BMW signed a memorandum of understanding about their upcoming sports car project, a Japanese car magazine has a number of new details about the two cars.
According to a Motoring Australia report, which quotes an unnamed Toyota insider and mainly, Japan’s Holiday Auto magazine, the BMW model resulting from the partnership is a replacement for the current Z4 Roadster, while the Toyota will be the next Supra.
Although Toyota now also has a turbocharged two-liter four-pot in the parts bin from Lexus, it seems that the next Supra will have both its ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) and the transmission borrowed from BMW, while the rest of the hybrid system internals are being developed by the Japanese themselves.
Apparently, a less advanced version of the “super conductor hybrid” technology employed by the Toyota TS040 Le Mans car will be transferred to the cars, with the total output of the models to situate a good deal north of 350 hp.
Two electric generators – one on the front axle and one on the rear – will use the kinetic energy during braking maneuvers to create electric current and send it to a super-capacitor, which in turn will boost the power of the ICE during acceleration.
This is not all, as the same report claims that the next Supra will be all-wheel drive thanks to the addition of two electric motors with torque vectoring on the front axle and another electric motor to supplement the ICE sending power to the rear wheels.
Both cars are expected to appear on the market until 2017, with the Supra revival to sport its own distinct design, which a number of people suspect that it was previewed by the Toyota FT-1 concept car at this year’s Detroit Auto Show – that’s the one pictured here.
By Alex Oaganau
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