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Toyota’s Third Sports Car ‘Brother’ Will Probably Be More Expensive Than the 86

Two years ago to the day, Toyota hinted at a sports car lineup of “three brothers” that would be comprised of the Toyota 86, the new Supra, and an as-yet unannounced third sports car.

However, while many had expected a smaller, more affordable car than the 86, Toyota Gazoo Racing chief Tetsuya Tada says that’s not likely to happen.

“I believe most people are looking forward to the smallest of the ‘three brothers.’ And when people say the smallest they expect it would be the most affordable,” he said. “But in reality coming up with a compact small sports car is quite difficult.”

According to Tada, the current state of the auto industry is such that building a car that meets safety and emissions regulations would make it difficult to profit on a car smaller than the 86, especially as the number of physical components making up the two cars would be similar regardless.

Tada added that any car smaller and more affordable than the 86 would naturally compete with the 86 itself. “In the actual market there are now plenty of second-hand GT86s that are fairly compact, so in order to compete with these second-hand cars it’s difficult to come up with a smaller version,” he explained.

In other words, the 86 is affordable enough that it doesn’t make much sense to offer an even more affordable sports car. This makes sense, as the car is already the king of budget-friendly compact sports cars alongside the Mazda MX-5.

There’s a much larger cost margin between a new 86 and the $50,000 Supra, making it far more likely that Toyota’s third “brother” would be positioned somewhere between the two.

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