1995 Toyota Supra

1995 Toyota Supra

Talk of a Toyota Supra successor has been around ever since the legendary Japanese sports car went out of production in the early part of the last decade.

Things really heated up when Toyota unveiled an advanced sports car concept with similar proportions to the Supra at the 2007 Detroit Auto Show.

However, in the years following the reveal of the striking concept car, the global financial crisis hit, the cost of fuel spiked, and Toyota even decided to pull out of Formula 1 racing.

Things weren't looking good for any kind of sports car from Toyota.

Now, with sports car loving Akio Toyoda at the helm, Toyota has rekindled its desire to build performance cars as evidenced by the recent launches of the Lexus LFA supercar, a much sportier GS sedan, and the new GT 86/Scion FR-S sports car.

But Toyota’s sports car revival isn’t expected to end with just these models.

Toyota exec says FT-HS could be 'Supra of the future'

Toyota exec says FT-HS could be 'Supra of the future'

Speaking with Drive, the chief engineer of the GT 86 Tetsuya Tada revealed that Toyota could launch two more sports cars, one positioned below the GT 86 and another above. It’s this higher positioned model that has got the rumor mill working overtime with suggestions that the Supra name may make a return.

“I would like to have one smaller and one larger. One would probably be a Supra follower. Nothing has been decided yet. It would [be] like a Supra successor,” Tada said.

He went on to reveal that the Supra successor could be developed together with Subaru, just like the GT 86, though he stressed that a sound business case was needed first. We’re not sure if Subaru would be willing to revive its own SVX badge but at the least the automaker does have a history of selling high-end sports cars.

If all goes to plan, there could be a new entry-level sports car from Toyota or Scion priced below $20,000, followed by the GT 86 and FR-S in the $20k to $30k bracket, and a new generation Supra priced above $50k and competing against the likes of the Nissan GT-R and Chevrolet Corvette.

Subaru SVX

Subaru SVX