Last month, Toyota launched the iQ city car, to much fanfare amongst the green-machine crowd. Within days, speculation began on a sporty two-seater roadster based on the same small platform. Naturally, the first thing we noticed was its resemblance to the 1965 Toyota Sports 800, itself based on a lesser commuter car, the Publica. If built, the yet-unnamed iQ-based convertible could be powered by a 1.0 or 1.3-liter gasoline or diesel engine. Sadly, unlike its predecessors, both this roadster and the iQ are front wheel drive. Expect to see a prototype at the 2009 Tokyo Motor Show.
I don’t meen to seem unapreciative in the face of TMC actually working on a sportscar,but RWD would’ve been preferable.RWD sportscars for the financially brawny are plentyful,but not so much for the rest of us. At the top of my TMC wishlist is a return of the MR2 Roadster,affordable sportscars at their very best!
Pretty cool looking car, always loved the Sports 800; too bad it won’t be RWD though. Then again, maybe Toyota will surprise us and miraculously bring it to the market as a RWD model. Well either way, I hope they make it into a production car, it’ll be the closest thing to a “sports car” from Toyota if they do.
I think the closest we can hope for is an AWD model. For some reason, the Japanese like to put AWD on tiny kei cars.
Aside from the headlights, I don’t see much of a resemblance. This seems to be just some magazine’s rendering, and not an official sketch from Toyota. While it would definitely be a cool little sports car, I wouldn’t say it’s the spiritual successor to the Sports 800.
Nice concept sketch but you know it would be corrupted by the tall-boy trend & architecture of the iQ to appear almost as tall as wide… making it a HUGE dissapointment !
I like my cars l o w.
If Toyota was really serious about this, they need to make this car a ‘Targa’ top. Toyota beat Porsche to market with this, and it’s the key element of the S800 that makes it special….
79cord – I hear ya loud and clear. Low is where it’s at.
gaijinshogun – Good point. I love how early Toyota was always ready and willing to take it to the big boys like Porsche. Nowadays the Big T lets Nissan take that role.
It’s a nice idea, but until I see something official from the big T, I won’t hold my breath. Like gaijinshogun said, a Targa top would help the image.
Speaking of Sports 800’s, there’s a REAL one on ebay now… item 180308307070.
Whats wrong with FWD? Some here are too fast to push their snob nose in the air and recite the mantra “it just wouldnt be good unless it had RWD” over and over until we are convinced. There are plenty of examples of previous,current and future FWD sports cars ( Mini Cooper S / JCW, Honda CRX SI and forthcoming CRZ, second Lotus Elan ( a market failure but good performer),etc . I have owned 18 cars since HS . Two CRX SI’s, 93 Senra SER an original MR2, 02 Mini Cooper S ,VW Scirocco and current GTI…..among others. IMHO Toyota could make this an affordable performer with good suspension tuning and Limited slp differential ….and FWD. Toyota would not “surprise us” and offer a RWD roadster based on a FWD platform unless they made it mid engine. This would add to the expense and defeat the idea of offering an affordable roadster ( or coupe) based on the existing IQ chassis. Expense is what killed the second MR2.Lets see what happens before dismissing. We should know something by the time the CRZ comes and by the Tokyo motor show for the IQ.