Could Toyota be reviving the V12 for the Century Coupé?

According to a report out of Japan, Toyota is considering bringing back the V12 engine for the upcoming Century Coupé. Last fall it spun Century off as its own standalone brand to go against the likes of Rolls-Royce, Bentley, and Maybach. But it won’t get far if the specs don’t go for the extremes, so a V12 seems like a good, maybe even necessary, thing to have.

We caught wind of this from Motor Trend, which caught wind of it from Japan’s Mag X, There’s a question of whether the V12 will be one of Toyota’s own creation, or two of the BMW 3.0-liter inline-six fused together. Either way, it’ll have twin turbos and be part of a hybrid system good for 800 horsepower fed through an 8- or 10-speed automatic.

Although the V12 is almost synonymous with the Century, it really only appeared in the model for one generation. The first gen, built from 1967-97, had a V8, and the third gen, built from 2018 to present, borrows its V8 hybrid from the Lexus LS600h. Only the second gen built from 1997 to 2017, had a V12, but it was an superbly refined, ultra-smooth engine that made a Lexus 1UZ V8 look like tractor motor.

When the A90 Supra came out, Toyota engineers said that they no longer had the manufacturing facilities to produce its own inline-six. Perhaps something has changed, or the Century’s low-volume hand-built process makes a V12 possible.

We agree that a twin-turbo V12 will be the way to go, especially with Toyota’s level of refinement, for an ultra-luxury car like this.  But we can also all agree that in order to compete with the world’s best, customers will expect a home grown powerplant.