Toyota’s Mid-Engine Sports Car Revival Is Facing Major Setbacks

At the 2025 Tokyo Auto Salon, Toyota surprised the world with a wild concept: a GR Yaris with an engine mounted behind the seats. It was called the GR Yaris M Concept, made from the same shell that brought America the snazzy GR Corolla. At the time, its recipe – a mid-engine sports car powered by a 2.0-liter four-pot engine – was a dead ringer for the long-rumored MR2 revival.

The Toyota GR Yaris M Concept was supposed to have its on-track debut at the Super Taikyu Series in Japan. However, that’s not the case anymore. In a recent release, Toyota said that it decided not to participate in the said series with the Yaris M Concept. The reason? It’s currently facing challenges with its development and needs time to “refine it further.”

Toyota’s Facing “Difficulties” With The Car

Toyota is mum about the details of the plan’s derailment, but specifically mentioned that it’s facing “difficulties unique to midship-mounted vehicles in terms of braking, steering, and driving.” Sounds like an overall tuning problem, but a diligent move considering that the racing series is the perfect test bed for the mid-engine sports car. Toyota, however, doesn’t want to leave anything to chance – probably because it doesn’t want the debut to fail.

Don’t fret, though, as Toyota’s pretty much determined to put the GR Yaris M Concept on the track and then eventually on the road. In the same release, Toyota commits to “entering the vehicle in future races.” And just in case you’re still in doubt whether the mid-engine sports car will ever reach production status, the automaker said that it “continues to pursue its goal of making ever-better motorsports-bred cars.”

A Monster Of A Four-Pot Mill

If you’re unaware, the 2.0-liter four-banger in the GR Yaris M Concept makes 450 horsepower. While that number is more than respectable, Toyota touted that this is just the beginning. A Toyota engineer has gone on record that this engine has been designed to be bored out further, and with bigger turbos and other oily refinements, it could produce up to 600 hp.

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Toyota’s plan to introduce a mid-engine sports car may be delayed at this time, but it’s good to hear that it’s not giving up that easily. That’s because even with Akio Toyoda leaving the automaker’s helm for the current President and CEO, Koji Sato, the world’s largest automaker is still committed to Morizo’s promise: No more boring cars.

Source: Toyota