Will TMG Become Toyota’s AMG?
You might think that Toyota already has something similar in their TRD branch, and you would be kinda right. Their focus is heavily trained on trucks. I mean, think about the last time you heard of a TRD edition car from Toyota? That’s where Toyota Motosports GmbH (TMG) comes in.
No one would blame you if you forgot about these guys. The group has been around since 1979, and served as Toyota’s racing branch for over 30 years. Now, they’re responsible for the hybrid Toyota LMP1 cars that did so well at Le Mans earlier this week and are in the midst of creating a Yaris rally car. Racing is certainly their “thing,” but they haven’t been limiting their expertise to the track.
They’ve also been busy testing a twin-turbo, 650hp LS. That hugely powerful sedan that would rank right up there with the S63 AMG.The best part? They could have it ready for production in 6 to 9 months.
Currently, the closest that Lexus gets to pulling the high performance luxury crowd is the IS-F. That’s good competition for the small to mid-size luxury cars, like M3 and the C63 AMG, but Lexus lacks the hardware to challenge them directly. TMG could step up to fill that gap all across the Lexus range.
Currently the group is only working on high-end models, which means that it’ll largely be a Lexus only affair if they do become Toyota’s in-house performance division. Frankly, we think it’s an awesome idea. There hasn’t been a single super sedan to come out Japan, in the last… Forever? Nissan isn’t going to do it. Why not lexus?
