Turbocharged, supercharged, STI--we've seen and heard it all, and even done some of the speculation ourselves. But the chief engineer of the Scion FR-S, Subaru BRZ, and Toyota GT-86, Tetsuya Tada thinks that's the wrong direction. Instead, he's talking about a KERS-type hybrid like that seen on the Toyota TS030 Le Mans Prototype.

That's the story according to Top Gear, anyway. Having recently sat down with Tada, Top Gear cites Tada as dismissing the value of a 300-horsepower, high-emissions car before saying, "So we're looking at a next-generation hybrid. More like the TS030 Le Mans Prototype. We're looking into that possibility."

And a very interesting possiblity that is. In fact, it's slightly more than a possibility--Tada already has a functional prototype of the car with a KERS-style hybrid system in place.

However, as with any car at the FR-S/BRZ price point, the realities of business needs must come first. Adding a complex, high-tech hybrid system to the car could just be too expensive--at least for now.

However, should Toyota find a way to reduce costs and complexity to a production level for the car, it might provide exactly what the car needs most: on-demand torque. If it can be done without adding substantial weight, thereby preserving the car's excellent dynamics, and without driving the price into the realm of more natively powerful sports cars, it might just be the best of all worlds.

Plus, how cool would it be to own a KERS hybrid sports car?