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Loading ...Toyota May Bring Back MR2 Sports Car As a Hybrid
Posted on December 3, 2009
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I have many a fond memory of my friend’s old supercharged Toyota MR2. The peppy two-seater was a rarity for its day; an affordable, fun, mid-engine sports car from the generally conservative Toyota. We used to whip around parking lots, burning rubber, and raise a ruckus… until the car wound up on its roof due to, uh, mysterious circumstances.
So the news that Toyota might be considering bringing back the MR2, as a hybrid, fills me with mixed emotions, but mostly hope that the ‘yota might be making a comeback to old-fashioned fun [Ed. Note: Toyota could do for a good dose of that these days, what with all the recalls, lawsuits, and generally bad karma].Now this is pretty much pure speculation on the part of Japanese magazine Best Car, but, with Toyota’s crosstown rival Honda bringing their hip CR-Z hybrid to market sometime in the next year, Toyota might be wise to deliver a competitor. Honda’s CR-Z recalls its CRX roots; why shouldn’t Toyota bring the MR2 out of retirement?
Reportedly, the car would be called the MR-S (Can someone explain to me why most modern cars lack proper names? Would you like to drive a Mrs.? Er, on second thought, don’t answer that) and would use a reworked version of the Prius hybrid synergy system. As I like to remind my readers, electric motors provide 100% of their available torque at 0 RPM, making them an excellent choice for performance applications. An MR-S with an electric torque dump could prove quite the competitor, though the rendered styling could use some help. It reminds me a little too much of an Audi TT.
With many customers focused on fuel economy-yet still demanding performance-a line up of quick, fuel-efficient cars should sell well.
Source: Gas 2.0
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The Fisker Karma Plug-in Hybrid Sports Car.
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