Toyota Engineer Suggests new Turbo Four-Cylinder Could Make 600 HP

The engine in Toyota’s GR Yaris and GR Corolla is an absolute monster. The 1.6-liter engine makes 300 horsepower along with 295 lb-ft of torque, and the engineers are trying to make that even higher. Aftermarket tuners, who don’t need to worry about pesky things like eight-year emissions warranties, are pushing it well beyond 700 horsepower. All of this, remember, with just three cylinders.

Now, Toyota is building a new four-cylinder engine, inspired by the legendary 2JZ inline-six. An engine that should easily eclipse the existing G16E-GTS engine. This is the engine that made 450 horsepower in the back of the GR Yaris M-Concept, and it has the potential to leave the most powerful four-cylinder engines from Audi, BMW, and even Mercedes-AMG in the dust.

Engine Could Make 600 HP “Easily”

“The performance is incredible,” a GR engineer told German site Auto Motor und Sport. That’s with the 450-horsepower 2.0-liter version as found in the back of the M-Concept.

But Toyota executives told the site that 450 horsepower is just a starting point. “With a larger turbocharger, more than 600 hp is easily possible,” they said. Now it sounds like that one will be used in a race car version, possibly of the GR Yaris, but also potentially the mid-engined sports car that we keep hearing Gazoo Racing and Toyota are working on.

The report described the new Toyota engine as having “virtually no restrictions” when it comes to technology. It is an engine that will be aimed squarely at performance customers, and that includes the aftermarket. The Toyota 2JZ inline-six, the performance legend from the fourth-generation Supra, could easily handle making three times its original power with the right turbos and fuel. With the right mods, pushing 2,000 horses is on the table. This engine, the report says, was designed according to the same principles.

“We left enough space between the cylinders so that the engine can be bored out considerably,” the Toyota execs said. That’s rare in modern engines. It’s a feature that would likely be used extremely rarely, and almost certainly increases costs and makes the engine tougher to package. But for those who need it, some extra displacement means more horsepower.

New Engine Has Potential To Crush Even AMG’s Mighty Four

If this new engine can make 450 horsepower, it would be one of the most powerful four-cylinders in the world, and one of the most power-dense of any in a real production car. The current four-pot champ is the AMG M139, a 2.0-liter engine used in cars like the Mercedes-AMG C63 S E-Performance. In that car, the engine makes 469 horsepower, a figure that Toyota might still be able to beat.

Even 450 horsepower in a 2.0-liter engine would give the car around 225 hp/liter. A figure that would put it well up on the 3.0-liter twin-turbo V6 that Ferrari puts in the 296 GTB. Impressive company, for a Corolla.

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The report says that this engine will show up this year, but that’s in motorsports and not in a road car. No word on when the new four, which will also have a 1.5-liter version, will end up in something you can drive home.

Source: Auto Motor und Sport