The award-winning Mazda Vision Coupe concept from 2017 that gives us some hints as to what the new … [+]
Big news coming out of Japan reveals that Toyota and Mazda are expected to collaborate in creating a next generation of sports cars. The two carmakers have partnered before on technology such as hybrids, but what we are now hearing from Japan’s biggest-selling car magazine Best Car is utterly eye-opening in its scope and boldness. Mazda has a new sports car that no one knew about and its collaborating with Toyota to build it.
The 3.3-liter 6-cylinder is the engine in question
Having co-developed the current model GR Supra with BMW, Toyota is looking to swap the German company’s inline 6-cylinder turbo engine it employed in the Supra for a Mazda-developed 6-cylinder turbo. That Mazda engine just happens to be the same 3.3-liter gasoline powertrain as the one propelling the U.S.-spec CX-70 and CX-90 and the fact that it powers a rear-wheel-drive setup is what interests Toyota. And we expect this engine to generate around 360 hp putting it in the ballpark of the current Supra.
You have to look closely to see that this Mazda Vision Coupe concept is a 4-door.
But while Toyota seems happy to jump ship from Germany to Hiroshima in adopting the Mazda engine, Mazda itself is in the process of developing its own new sports car using the same rear-drive powertrain. And while the Miata MX-5 maker is considering a rival 2-door to a next-generation Toyota GR Supra, the more likely model Mazda will opt for will be a 4-door coupe styled model that features the same straight-6 powerplant. Best Car suggests that such a choice would sell better as it would give potential customers a better choice of sports car—a 2-door from Toyota or a 4-door from Mazda.
The new 6-cylinder turbo car would complete a trio of sports cars for Mazda
We know that the Hiroshima-based firm is currently working on its 5th-generation Miata MX-5 and an all-new rotary-hybrid powered sports car, but by adding this 6-cylinder powered sports car it will complete the firm’s trio of sports cars. Now while some people may raise questions about whether a 4-door sports can be classified as a sports car, the fact that it will use the same platform and engine as the next GR Supra makes it a rival, and widens the definition of a sports car. Or at least that how Mazda appears to see it.
Mazda and Toyota started a capital tie-up by buying shares in each other back in 2017 with Toyota purchasing 5.1% of Mazda to become its third largest shareholder. Then, in 2021, under a joint venture that saw the two start producing vehicles at the Huntsville plant in Alabama, Toyota makes the Corolla Cross while Mazda assembles the CX-50 on the same production line. Just how close is the relationship? That Alabama-built CX-50 employs Toyota’s highly successful THS hybrid system, while in Europe, the Mazda2 hybrid is based on a Toyota Yaris.
The new Mazda sports car could employ styling from Vision Coupe
The first time we heard of this Toyota-Mazda collaboration on sports cars was back in 2015 when Mazda unveiled their stunning rotary-powered RX-Vision concept car followed in quick succession by the drop-dead gorgeous Mazda 4-door Vision Coupe concept in 2017. Platforms and powertrains were rumored to be shared.
Then five years later in 2022 at the Tokyo Auto Salon, Toyota revealed the GR GT3 concept, a sports car that boasted almost identical proportions to the RX-Vision raising suspicion that the two cars employed the same platform. We expect the as yet unnamed Mazda sports car, due in 2027, to employ strategic aspects of the styling from the Vision Coupe but lose some of the length of the concept car to make it more practical for daily driving.
