Reports out of Japan claim that Toyota and Mazda are rumored to be deepening their ties by jointly working on a new sports car. The two companies are already linked in that Toyota owns 5.1 percent of Mazda and the two have a factory in Huntsville, Alabama that builds the Corolla Cross, Mazda CX-50, and CX-50 Hybrid (which uses a Toyota drivetrain). However, a co-developed sports car like what Toyota and Subaru have done with the GR86 and BRZ would strengthen the bond on another level.
Japanese magazine Best Car says that sometime in spring of 2025 Toyota and Mazda will make a joint announcement and that there’s a “high possibility” it will be a new sports car collaboration. Supporting the rumor are whispers that “a large number of Mazda engineers have been dispatched to the Toyota Gazoo Racing’s development site.”
If true, it’s likely that this car will be the next-generation GR Supra, which is ending production with a limited-production A90 Final Edition. The car will come with exclusive aero parts, suspension, brakes, and exhaust. It also receives a significant increase in output, 429 horsepower (up from 382) and 420 lb-ft of torque (up from 369). Only 300 will be built, with sales split between Europe and Japan. The US is supposed to be getting its own, it hasn’t been announced yet.
In any case, the rumor mill says that the next GR Supra will hit the road in 2027, which is the same year Mazda’s Iconic SP is supposed to debut. Toyota and BMW are not expected to continue their Z4/Supra project for the A100 generation, so it makes a lot of sense for Toyota and Mazda ot partner. It doesn’t quite seem like the lithe and light Iconic SP and sledgehammer-esque Supra would have a lot in common chassis-wise, but the current sports car-hostile marketplace may force concessions.
Interestingly, Mazda may end up supplying very different engines to both cars. Mazda has stated they’re planning a rotary-hybrid powerplant for the Iconic SP, while the Supra, as we learned during the A90 launch, must have an inline-six. As it happens, the most likely candidate for the latter is the straight-six from CX-90.
There’s a lot more holes in this story than, say, that of the Celica revival, for which Toyota has been dropping more clues than a Scooby-Doo villain. If that’s a 10 in likelihood we’d rate this rumor at a 6, even as we desperately hope for it to happen. We would love nothing more than a sports car with Mazda dynamics and Toyota levels of refinement, and it would be great to see Mazda’s brilliant six in something other than an SUV.
Ah, another rumor from the Japanese tabloid auto press.
Did they have any fanciful digital renderings that have nothing to do with reality, like they always publish?
Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to see Toyota run away screaming from BMW, but I’ll believe it when I see it in steel, running on it’s own power.
I read the title and went “Supra-RX rumors go brrrr!”, then I read and it is exactly that!
Seeing Mazda using their inline-6 to make a Supra AND make a next-gen rotary sports car would be great, and I will love to see the rivalry develop between these two cars. It would not just be subaru’s flat-four versus the tri-diamond’s inline-four, it would be Mazda’s rotary tech versus… mazda’s inline 6, but with a Toyota sticker on top? A “Suspension tuning by Toyota GR”, like the “Suspension by Lotus” we saw in the early 90’s?
In the end, more sports cars can only be good, even if they share a common base. They might as well bring a sporty sedan, a four-doors coupe or even a five-door wagon if that could pull people out from SUVs.
Yet another TL;DR talk right here.
After looking / watching “news” about the Honda-Nissan-Mitsubishi affairs saga, this time, within the Toyota tree, “rumors” regarding the revival / duty of its sports / performance car(s) program – like trying on to team up with brands that are already within that tree as mentioned on this article (plus Suzuki) – which may contain Supra and others like MR2, Celica and GR versions of Yaris and Corolla would have been reviewed by Toyota itself not only thanks to Trump’s imposition of tarrifs and others like Hyundai’s and Kia’s worldwide expansions (since its given that South Korea is one market that mostly neglects anything Japanese just as neither Hyundai nor Kia are present that much in Japan) would mean that Toyota may instead look to partner with its junior but bigger compatriot Honda and even join forces with each other to purchase and hold shares in (mainly) Renault and in addition Stellantis formerly PSA Peugeot Citroen and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. (Which is deeply interesting that the latter two even had histories of making sports cars just as Renault did the same with developing a front-wheel drive Supra that Toyota have rarely thought of it like the [Renault] Laguna and [Renault] Safrane.)
Curiously, Mazda’s previous two logos – before the current one seen on one of the pictures – had been likened to Renault as given the appearance, but with both carmakers also has had histories with Nissan and Mitsubishi – especially with Renault similarly had ties with Toyota like Hino (Motors) and the SOFASA manufacturing facility in Colombia where both Renault and Toyota assembled each others’ cars there, then while Toyota and Nissan for examples would exchange roles of marketing one’s marques in the former two’s dealerships in Japan and other parts of the globe (especially where Jeep, Renault and the rest of its peers neither have much presence nor anything there like Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Australia and New Zealand / NZ) like if Toyota were selling Jeep products in its and / or Nissan lots just as the both (Toyota and / or Nissan) would sell Renault cars in Mazda showrooms – both Honda and Mazda does not even have products to run on the roughest and toughest conditions – just like in early 1990s Japan where Suzuki lots sold Peugeots and Mazda lots similarly did with Citroens and Fiat cars (via Lancia), therefore since the Renault Group may have seen the lack of sales in its sole Alpine model – probably an MR2 revival would benefit from a Toyota-Honda-Renault-Stellantis quadruple entente just as to remember that Renault / Alpine once made the [Renault] GTA which was a Gallic Porsche with only a V6 engine in it.
Also, Renault and Stellantis’ predecessors – PSA and FCA – are were profoundly known for expertise in diesel engines, probably with GM’s Chevrolet had watched the transition of its Corvette into a mid-engined sports car, then as this article also said that Toyota and Mazda were been planning to rethink of their performance / sports car(s) project with one powered by an inline-six engine, especially as Renault has interests in performance cars since they were the first to win the World Rally Championship (WRC) in 1973, combining two identical inline-three engines into one (resutling into a I6 engine) would have been a good idea for a Toyota-Mazda sports / performance car project that would be instead helped / aided by Renault, Stellantis (formerly PSA Group and Fiat SpA) and – to a lesser extent – Honda and Ferrari. (That’s what I would call that as a “mega-merger” that would have been better off than what Honda, Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors were planning to, but remind you that Mazda got used to sell less cars than Ford back when the former was part of the Blue Oval, and a quadruple entente between Toyota, Honda, Renault plus Nissan and Stellantis would be a reconnection of the historic link between Chrysler and Renault that occured when the former bought AMC / Jeep from the latter.)
I was curious about your FWD Supra by Renault and went to have a look at the Laguna and Safrane, one is an exec sedan and the other was a mid-size coupe, would that not be more in line with an Accord coupe than the Supra?
Renault made bonkers sports cars when they put their mind into it though!
You do both Toyota and Mazda an injustice by implying one has better chassis design and the other higher levels of refinement. I think they each do well in both categories. Mazda with the smaller R&D budget would benefit the most if this partnership were to actually happen. By sharing the costs with Toyota they can more easily recoup their portion over a smaller production volume.