View Poll Results: What name should Toyota use for the production Toyota FT-1?
Supra gets my vote!
129
84.31%
I don't know, but its time for a new name.
24
15.69%
Voters: 153. You may not vote on this poll
Toyota Supra / FT-1
01-19-14, 11:12 AM
#286
The SC was my DD and the Supra was my weekend fun car. You can definitely enjoy both ends of the spectrum (Luxury and high performance).
With the new RC-F and the potential FT-1 coming into production, if both vehicles end up being near the same price point, I personally would be comparing the two vehicles based on my wants and needs.
Last edited by redspencer; 01-19-14 at 11:17 AM.
01-19-14, 01:00 PM
#288
I used to have both an SC300 and a Supra.
The SC was my DD and the Supra was my weekend fun car. You can definitely enjoy both ends of the spectrum (Luxury and high performance).
With the new RC-F and the potential FT-1 coming into production, if both vehicles end up being near the same price point, I personally would be comparing the two vehicles based on my wants and needs.
The SC was my DD and the Supra was my weekend fun car. You can definitely enjoy both ends of the spectrum (Luxury and high performance).
With the new RC-F and the potential FT-1 coming into production, if both vehicles end up being near the same price point, I personally would be comparing the two vehicles based on my wants and needs.
I'm not saying you can't enjoy both. Some are trying to say there is no market for a $50k+ Supra and that it would interfere with a $70k+ RC-F. I'm saying yes there is a market for such a car and the RC-F is aimed at a different crowd. GM has the C7 and they are planning a ATS-V coupe. I believe Toyota is doing something similar.
A new Supra could go after cars like the base C7. While they have the RC-F to take on the M4, ATS-V coupe, RS5 and ect.
I agreed, for me I would take a new ($50kish) Supra over the $70k+ RC-F because it will most likely weight less, cost less and lets not forget about how the RC-F does not come with a manual transmission.
Across the forums people are wanting a $50kish Supra that weights about 3,500lbs or less, V6 turbo or I6 turbo, and a manual transmission with an automatic transmission as an options.
Last edited by Vh_Supra26; 01-19-14 at 01:11 PM.
01-19-14, 03:11 PM
#289
Will Toyota Really Build Its Video-Game FT-1 Concept Car?
We've heard of cars inspiring video games -- but did a video game inspire this radical new Toyota?
Toyota says that its FT-1 Concept car was "devised by Calty Design Research in the Sony PlayStation Gran Turismo game environment." It's a futuristic riff on several historic Toyota sports-car designs, and it might -- might -- be a preview of a future Toyota Supra.
Would Toyota really build a car inspired by a video game?
It might. Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda has been pushing his company to make vehicles that inspire what Toyota executives call wakudoki. (That's Japanese for "a palpable heart-pounding sense of excitement," Toyota says.)
The FT-1's looks are somewhat polarizing, but it certainly has way more wakudoki than a beige Camry ever will. It may be a concept car, meaning it isn't officially intended for production, but Toyota hinted that something like it could appear in the not-too-distant future.
The Fool's John Rosevear and Rex Moore spent some time up close with the FT-1 at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit this past week. We got a good look, but we didn't learn much about it, because Toyota hasn't said much about it. About all Toyota would tell us about the FT-1 is that it would have a "high-technology, high performance internal combustion engine" in the front, and its drive wheels in the back. How fast will it go? How much would it cost? Would the production version really be called "Supra?" We have no idea.
Still, there's something intriguing about the car. It's a sign that Toyoda's charge to his company's employees has been heard, and Toyota is welcoming ideas that might bring a little more wakudoki to the company's bread-and-butter lineup.
Check it out in the short video below. Then scroll down to leave a comment, and let us know: Would you buy a sports car that started life in a video game?
Toyota says that its FT-1 Concept car was "devised by Calty Design Research in the Sony PlayStation Gran Turismo game environment." It's a futuristic riff on several historic Toyota sports-car designs, and it might -- might -- be a preview of a future Toyota Supra.
Would Toyota really build a car inspired by a video game?
It might. Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda has been pushing his company to make vehicles that inspire what Toyota executives call wakudoki. (That's Japanese for "a palpable heart-pounding sense of excitement," Toyota says.)
The FT-1's looks are somewhat polarizing, but it certainly has way more wakudoki than a beige Camry ever will. It may be a concept car, meaning it isn't officially intended for production, but Toyota hinted that something like it could appear in the not-too-distant future.
The Fool's John Rosevear and Rex Moore spent some time up close with the FT-1 at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit this past week. We got a good look, but we didn't learn much about it, because Toyota hasn't said much about it. About all Toyota would tell us about the FT-1 is that it would have a "high-technology, high performance internal combustion engine" in the front, and its drive wheels in the back. How fast will it go? How much would it cost? Would the production version really be called "Supra?" We have no idea.
Still, there's something intriguing about the car. It's a sign that Toyoda's charge to his company's employees has been heard, and Toyota is welcoming ideas that might bring a little more wakudoki to the company's bread-and-butter lineup.
Check it out in the short video below. Then scroll down to leave a comment, and let us know: Would you buy a sports car that started life in a video game?
01-20-14, 06:40 AM
#294
How Toyota raced the clock to create the FT-1 sports car
Editor's note: The inner sanctum of an automaker's design studio is as classified as a top-secret government spy shop. Even many top executives aren't allowed inside, much less civilians or the media. But after months of negotiations, Toyota Motor Corp. allowed Automotive News inside its Calty design studio in Newport Beach, Calif., to track the development of the FT-1 concept car. This is the story.
Kevin Hunter knew he had a winner.
Presenting a full-sized model of Toyota's next-generation sports car concept to a roomful of executives in Nagoya was going to be a pressure-packed performance. What if Toyota Motor CEO Akio Toyoda didn't like the car? What if the Japanese design chief wanted big changes made? Would there be enough time to make changes before the public unveiling at the Detroit auto show in January, less than nine months away?
But Hunter, the quiet, reserved president of Toyota's Calty Design Research studio in Newport Beach, Calif., had an ace up his sleeve.
In addition to the in-your-face styling of the FT-1 concept he was presenting, the Calty team had brought along a video-gaming pod with a Gran Turismo simulation of the FT-1 installed.
After giving the gleaming red sports car an approving walk-around, Toyoda climbed into the gaming pod, tearing off virtual hot laps at Toyota's home track, Fuji Speedway.
After a few minutes, he climbed out of the pod, beaming that the FT-1 was faster than his real-world lap time in an actual racecar.
Hunter breathed easier. He knew the concept was a go.
Interior design chief William Chergosky discusses the “slingshot” approach to the driver’s seat.
A spiritual pace car
The process of getting a sports car concept approved in the first place had started a year earlier, and with no less uncertainty.
Ever since the recession showed signs of easing, the Calty studio had wanted to build an outrageous high-performance concept car.
So when Hunter attended a meeting of Toyota's top management in March 2012 for a design briefing, he gently borrowed Akio Toyoda's recent edict: No more boring cars. Toyoda had publicly expressed worry that the automaker had become saddled with a reputation for conservative vehicles that evoked as much emotion as a dishwasher.
The Toyota brand sells millions of Corollas, Camrys and compact pickups worldwide. But it had no spiritual pace car in its current portfolio. As he entered the management meeting room for his original pitch, Hunter thought to himself: What could be less boring than bringing back a sports car for the Toyota brand?
Hunter's idea was for a concept car that could generate excitement at an upcoming auto show. This would not be a flight of fancy, but a halo car that would tickle show-goers with the idea that Toyota might actually produce such a vehicle.
As he gave his presentation, Hunter watched for reactions. Toyoda seemed excited, as did Mitsuhisa Kato, Toyota's new executive r&d chief, as well as Hunter's boss, global design czar Tokuo Fukuichi.
After Hunter left the room, the gathered executives eyed their CEO, the scion of Toyota's founding family. Fukuichi asked Toyoda and Kato if they thought the concept was worthy of a green light.
Akio looked at his team, and said, "Let's do it."
These early renderings of the interior and exterior of the Toyota FT-1 closely resemble the final car that the automaker unveiled in Detroit last week.
Generation gap
It may seem counterintuitive, but designing a sports car is the toughest challenge a stylist can undertake. On one hand, it's what every designer has dreamed of since doodling during high school algebra. No one aspires to sketch a minivan.
But the pressure to create such a brand statement is unreal. Just ask the guy in charge of updating the Porsche 911 or Ford Mustang. The result must be gorgeous and awe-inspiring, of course. But it also must conform to the company's design ethos without breaking myriad governmental regulations.
One false line — perhaps the hood must be raised by an inch to comply with European pedestrian-crash safety laws — and the car's aura can be compromised.
Over a lightning-fast 18 months, Calty's caffeine-
fueled designers, stylists, modelers and cultural ethnographers would work overtime to transform a clean-sheet idea into a prospective scene-stealer at the Detroit auto show.
Calty chief designer Alex Shen's portfolio already included a couple of Toyota sporty cars, including the
FT-HS concept and Scion FR-S production coupe. But after 20 years at Calty, this was something different: a once-in-a-career opportunity, as Shen calls it, to make "a kick-*** sports car."
When the 46-year-old Shen assembled his team in spring 2012 to start formulating ideas that would evolve into the concept, one car's name kept popping up: Supra.
It's one of the few vehicles in the Toyota lineup that actually has a sporty heritage in the United States. But the last Supra twin-turbocharged sports car was sold here in 2002.
"The perception in Japan was that the Supra was a good sports car," Hunter said. "In Japan, Supra is just another product in a long series of good products. They were unaware of its cult status here.
"But our designers, when we're out socially, when people ask us what we do, the very first question they all seem to ask is, 'When is the next Supra coming?'"
Calty's designers asked themselves how the Supra would have evolved had Toyota kept redesigning it. By 2014, two more generations of the vehicle would have passed through customer hands and another redesign would be arriving this year. What would it look like by now?
Turns out Toyota HQ didn't want Calty to be completely hamstrung by focusing its design on Supra-think. After several rounds of transoceanic meetings, it was decided to not attach the Supra name to the concept. Not only did that ease the pressure of expectations, but it gave the design team more freedom of expression.
They didn't know what to call the concept; it just wouldn't be "Supra." Eventually, the car would be known as FT-1, as in "Future Toyota," with "1" representing "the ultimate."
"You don't want to overthink it. It's not superintellectual. You want to appeal to the inner 12-year-old. If you don't feel it, throw it out."
William Chergosky
Calty Design Research
"The FT-1 concept pays homage to Toyota's entire sports car heritage, including the Celica, Supra and, before that, the iconic 2000GT," Fukuichi said in an e-mail interview. "The FT-1 is meant to be an extension of this historic lineage, but not a replacement or reinvention."
Before putting pencil to paper, the Calty team went to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway in June 2012 and drove the track's amassed collection of European exotic cars. The intent was not to pillage other companies' collective ideas but to see how other automakers approached the idea of a modern sports car and to explore how Toyota's styling language fit into that realm.
"It was more than a field trip," said William Chergosky, Calty's interior chief designer, a grin escaping his attempt at a poker face.
The group came back with so many opinions that every designer in the studio was allowed to sketch his or her own ideas for the concept.
"Everyone had their own vision of a Toyota sports car," Shen said. "We went around the room to get ideas, and there were obvious words like 'sexy.' But what kind of sexy should it be? There could be nothing trite or contrived about it. It had to attract and perform."
Through the summer of 2012, a circular wall of sketches was created in the studio, where designers slapped their various inspirations for the vehicle's form.
"It's something you feel and see that influences the way it looks," Chergosky said. "But it also comes back to the obvious: You don't want to overthink it. It's not superintellectual. You want to appeal to the inner 12-year-old. If you don't feel it, throw it out."
At Calty, stylists generally are directed not to become locked into their first sketches but to let new ideas flow — especially if they're working on the brand's halo car. Doodling is encouraged. Much of the best work comes from designers on their lunch hour, taking a break from other assigned projects.
For three months, Calty's designers drew their interpretations, with Hunter's caveat of "so long as the car looks like it came from Toyota, not from Ferrari or Chevy or Dodge."
"Even though we were designing the car in America, there was some exoticness to being true to Japan's culture and who we are as a company," Hunter said. "Everyone has their own identity. It's hard to wedge a new car into a place where people don't say, 'Ooh, it looks like a Corvette,' or whatever. We didn't want to go off in a direction where we missed our target. We didn't want to rely on fashion."
Calty President Kevin Hunter told his design team, “Convince me that it’s cool.”
'The perfect one'
Typically, when designing a concept car, Toyota engineers give Calty a vehicle's dimensions, along with instructions on packaging and the "hard points" where chassis and body structure should meet. But in this case the studio did its own proportioning work for the wheelbase, width and overhangs, Shen said.
Andrew MacLachlan, the FT-1's concept planner, noted that while Calty was given a clean slate, the team also knew that Fukuichi and Toyota's top executives in Japan had to approve the work. Calty enlisted Toyota Racing Development engineers to ensure that the car's aerodynamics were legit.
Added Shen: "This was to be a design-focused vehicle, not engineering-based. This was what designers' ideal proportions of what a sports car should be."
A key decision early on: where to place the engine?
Although the 2000GT of the late '60s, the first-generation Celica and all Supras have had a front-engine/rear-wheel-drive setup, the MR-2 was mid-engined. Many Ferraris and Lamborghinis have engines located behind the driver, and the 911 famously parked the engine behind the rear axle. When it comes to sports cars, there is no simple right answer.
"We spent a lot of time deciding on stance and proportion, whether it should be front-engine/rear-drive or a midship-mounted engine," Shen said.
"Everyone had their own vision of what makes a Toyota sports car."
The consensus was to have a front-mounted engine, located mostly behind the front axle.
Because designers have egos, "Every designer thought their [sketch] was the perfect one, so we had to manage that," Shen said with a laugh.
The exterior design emerged from there. No single sketch won the contest; an amalgam of ideas was mashed into one final design sketch.
It was the fall of 2012. With little more than a year before the car would be unveiled, it was time to start making small clay models.
Meanwhile, the interior design team had started working on packaging. The passenger compartment was being designed "like a slingshot, where the driver is the projectile," Chergosky said.
Although a concept car gives license to be dramatic, Chergosky's team wanted elements that could be passable in a production car.
The cabin headliner couldn't look "like a big piece of dryer lint." The engine brace that protrudes into the cabin was designed "to take something mundane and make it amazing." The head-up display looked pulled from a fighter jet.
"We wanted to fall in love with each element," said the 43-year-old Chergosky. "We went the extra mile."
As the interior and exterior began taking shape, Hunter took a rather laissez-faire approach to his marching orders, distilling it down to "convince me that it's cool." This from a 53-year-old boss who has a Captain Picard Star Trek uniform hanging in the corner of his office and a Batman Pez dispenser on his desk.
Birth of a concept
- March 2012: Calty makes pitch to Toyota top management
- May 2012: Toyota gives formal go-ahead for Calty to begin work
- June 2012: Calty team takes field trip to Las Vegas Speedway
- June 2012: Decision made for car to be front-engine/rear-drive layout
- July-September 2012: Exterior sketch proposals
- July-October 2012: Packaging drawings and renderings
- September-November 2012: 15% and 40% scale clay models
- December 2012-February 2013: Full-sized milled “hard” model
- March 2013: Toyota top management OKs concept
- May-June 2013: Calty “nip-and-tuck” of full-sized hard model
- Summer 2013: Concept name decided: FT-1
- July-November 2013: Fabrication of show car
- January 2014: Unveiling of car at Detroit auto show
Calty senior creative designer Bob Mochizuki sculpts a 15 percent scale clay model of the FT-1.
Scaling up
From the collection of final sketches, Calty modelers took the two months before Christmas 2012 to sculpt six 15 percent scale models and mill four interior bucks. There still was no clear winner.
"We were looking at ideas for potential," Shen said. "There was a lot of, 'I'm not sure about this.' There were a lot of discussions. It was kind of like therapy, with who saw what, and what felt better. It was an emotionally driven design process."
Rather than pick a winner, intriguing elements were taken from each clay model, and a series of 40 percent scale models attempted to harmonize those elements into one final design. Shen calls the process "functional sculpting," which is meant to be "emotional … juicy with purpose, but not frivolous."
One problem: What looked great at 40 percent didn't look so great when blown up to a full-scale packaging study. It did not feel right, Hunter said. The wheelbase was too long. The car looked "a little fluffy," like it had too much mass.
Time was running out. The new year was starting, and the time-consuming milling of a full-sized "hard" model had to begin. The sign-off meeting with top management in Japan was barely two months away.
Final sign-off
Within that two months, the wheelbase was shortened, the hood line and the rear three-quarter view were thinned to have more snap in the center line. The exhaust pipes were beefed up, and the taillights were given more zip. The rear deck received more aerodynamic treatment. And a huge rear spoiler sprouted from the trunk lid.
Still smelling of a mixture of composite materials, sweat and coffee, the full-sized model was crated up and loaded into the cargo hold of a jet bound for Japan, along with the Gran Turismo gaming pod that had been specially programmed by Polyphony Digital.
After Akio Toyoda's video-gaming exploits sealed the deal, approval was granted to build a show car — one able to propel itself onto a stage and be subject to scrutiny from the world's automotive executives and media.
Like most design studios, Calty doesn't have the machinery to build a self-propelling prototype from scratch. Instead, Calty called upon fabricator Five Axis, located just up Interstate 405, which had created a lengthy portfolio of Toyota, Lexus and Scion auto show concept vehicles.
"We just dropped off the data," Hunter says. He's kidding.
Transforming software coding into a milled model, and then into a working, breathing machine has hundreds of ways to go wrong. Even though all the numbers might appear to add up in the Alias design software, the scissor-hinged doors might not open properly when the car is shown to the world's automotive press. Or the interior might not align quite right with the exterior. A solenoid might not work, and the cool rear spoiler might not pop up from the trunk lid. Come auto show time, any error could be a career-shortening embarrassment.
For the next five months, a team of 15 Calty designers, modelers and fabricators invaded Toyota's secured space at Five Axis to build and perfect the FT-1. Toyota wouldn't reveal the price of the project, but concept cars typically cost about $1 million.
Finally, the concept rolled into Calty's shop at the end of November, to receive final detailing before being shipped to Detroit for last Monday's introduction.
Back in Orange County, as the car sat in repose in the dimmed, high-ceilinged Calty staging area, the three top designers gathered for video interview sessions. Normally, designers get no feedback on their work until it is shown to the public, for better or worse. But this is a rare exception.
Turning the tables, Shen looked at a reporter and asked — his voice a swirling mixture of pride and confidence, with just a hint of uncertainty: "What do you think?"
http://www.autonews.com/article/2014...#axzz2qwtWqV20
01-20-14, 07:58 AM
#295
does anyone think that Toyota may just lease BMW's I6? it wouldn't be the 1st Toyota car to have a BMW motor under the hood. also as others have pointed out, Toyota was to lazy to built its own engine for the FRS. and when Subaru pulled out of the 86 project they were still going to supply Toyota with their boxer motor.
Toyota doesn't make an inline-six anymore. But other automakers — BMW, for instance — still do. Hunter dismisses such theorizing. The engine could be a V-6, V-8, hybrid or some other package. However, Toyota and BMW last year announced a joint venture to build a next-generation sports car.
Hunter cuts off the conversation quickly: "We can't talk about engines anyway."
Hunter cuts off the conversation quickly: "We can't talk about engines anyway."
01-20-14, 08:03 AM
#296
Far east flares up in the west
Two Asian carmakers are using the annual Detroit motor show to showcase concept halo sports cars.
Toyota and Kia have stunned the car industry with two sensational-looking concept cars at the 2014 North American International Auto Show in Detroit which kicked off last week.
http://www.bangkokpost.com/auto/auto...up-in-the-west
Toyota and Kia have stunned the car industry with two sensational-looking concept cars at the 2014 North American International Auto Show in Detroit which kicked off last week.
Although still in their experimental stages, executives from both Asian brands have expressed their desire to put their prototypes into production.
The Toyota FT-1 and Kia GT4 Stinger are overshadowing a plethora of world premieres of fast cars with pumped-up performance and traditional rear-wheel-drive hardware from BMW, Cadillac, Chevrolet, Ford, Infiniti and Lexus.
The FT-1 is a two-seat, front-engined, rear-drive sports car penned by Toyota's North American research and design centre, called Calty, and could point to a modern-day successor of the legendary Supra last produced in 2002.
Lots of work has been put into the FT-1's aerodynamic properties which also includes a rear spoiler that can pop up when driven on the road at certain speeds.
Ever since Toyota revived its sports car intention with the 86 coupe two years ago, company boss Akio Toyoda has made it clear that he wants a bigger, halo effect model. Although Toyota and BMW had earlier announced a cooperation project to make a future sports car together, it still isn't clear whether the FT-1 is part of the deal.
Toyota hasn't spoken of the exact technical details of the FT-1, although it stressed that an internal combustion engine will still be used. This has raised suspicion among pundits that a petrol-electric components would be pooled with the German luxury carmaker.
This is not the first time Toyota has revealed its intention of bringing back the Supra spirit. Back in 2007, also at this very same motor show, it displayed the FT-HS, also designed by Calty. The equally swoopy-looking FT-HS was envisaged with a 400hp 3.5-litre V6 petrol-electric hybrid that would propel the car from 0-100kph within 4sec.
The decision to dust off the Supra revival with the FT-1 could also be the result of Honda putting the all-new NSX into production next year which will come with a V6 engine, dual-clutch automatic, three electric motors and a sophisticated all-wheel-drive system.
The Toyota FT-1 and Kia GT4 Stinger are overshadowing a plethora of world premieres of fast cars with pumped-up performance and traditional rear-wheel-drive hardware from BMW, Cadillac, Chevrolet, Ford, Infiniti and Lexus.
The FT-1 is a two-seat, front-engined, rear-drive sports car penned by Toyota's North American research and design centre, called Calty, and could point to a modern-day successor of the legendary Supra last produced in 2002.
Lots of work has been put into the FT-1's aerodynamic properties which also includes a rear spoiler that can pop up when driven on the road at certain speeds.
Ever since Toyota revived its sports car intention with the 86 coupe two years ago, company boss Akio Toyoda has made it clear that he wants a bigger, halo effect model. Although Toyota and BMW had earlier announced a cooperation project to make a future sports car together, it still isn't clear whether the FT-1 is part of the deal.
Toyota hasn't spoken of the exact technical details of the FT-1, although it stressed that an internal combustion engine will still be used. This has raised suspicion among pundits that a petrol-electric components would be pooled with the German luxury carmaker.
This is not the first time Toyota has revealed its intention of bringing back the Supra spirit. Back in 2007, also at this very same motor show, it displayed the FT-HS, also designed by Calty. The equally swoopy-looking FT-HS was envisaged with a 400hp 3.5-litre V6 petrol-electric hybrid that would propel the car from 0-100kph within 4sec.
The decision to dust off the Supra revival with the FT-1 could also be the result of Honda putting the all-new NSX into production next year which will come with a V6 engine, dual-clutch automatic, three electric motors and a sophisticated all-wheel-drive system.
01-20-14, 11:04 AM
#297
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It doesn't make much sense for Toyota to NOT offer a sports car in the $35-50k bracket...that's just too big of a gap. They need to keep the price of the 'Supra' down closer to $40k, not upwards of $60k, IMO. Fine if that means giving up some features or power. Or make 2 levels of the car: one for around $40k (petrol only?) and one for $50k+ (hybrid?).
They need a competitor for the Z, like back in the '90's. That was the sweet sport for JDM sports car greatness...they have to remain somewhat affordable, otherwise they'll continue to let the Koreans take more market share based on value alone.
They need a competitor for the Z, like back in the '90's. That was the sweet sport for JDM sports car greatness...they have to remain somewhat affordable, otherwise they'll continue to let the Koreans take more market share based on value alone.
no one is going to buy a $35k supra with 300hp when they can get a mustang for way less. that field is getting a little crowded anyways. the base C7 doesn't really have any direct competitors, would make sense for toyota to want a piece of the pie. a 400hp-450hp+ supra with a price tag of $50k doesnt seem to be to far fetched
the FRS is kinda a Z competitor. the prices between the two don't differed too much. its also been confirmed the new Z will have a turbo 4 banger. that sounds like it will become even more like a direct FRS competitor to me.
Last edited by gymratter; 01-20-14 at 11:35 AM.
01-20-14, 11:54 AM
#298
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of course they will offer the sports car in 35k-40k... because competition does, and it will take their sales. Nobody exists in a vacuum.
Supra that sells only at $60k level would be a special order car that sells 100 units per month world wide.
If they build Supra, it will start at $35k range thats for sure. And it will start with 2.0t engine.
Supra that sells only at $60k level would be a special order car that sells 100 units per month world wide.
If they build Supra, it will start at $35k range thats for sure. And it will start with 2.0t engine.
370z: $33k-$44k
ok that makes tons of sense.
01-20-14, 01:19 PM
#299
FT-1: Moving forward into the past
Calty’s studio team poses with the FT-1 – the culmination of every designer’s dream job.
It's not the next Toyota Supra. Or is it?
While paying tribute to the history of Toyota sports cars, the Toyota FT-1 concept unveiled at the Detroit auto show wasn't specifically designed to be the next Supra.
Calty Design Research and Toyota Motor Corp. executives went out of their way to avoid using the word "Supra" for fear of giving the concept the aura of an official production sign-off. FT-1 stands for "Future Toyota."
But Toyota has a track record of developing concept cars that find their way to the street.
"We called this design 'Supra' in presentations. There was a big debate over the name. So it's 'FT-1' now," said Calty President Kevin Hunter. "We're not ignoring that we have a history. The name itself is a different matter."
With that in mind, if the FT-1 were to become a production car, viewers should think smaller. To be perceived as a serious sports car on the show floor, the FT-1 had to have stage presence. That meant the concept would be 10 percent larger than what a real-world vehicle would be, Hunter said.
Had Calty done a real-size concept, there was a risk show-goers and the media wouldn't take the smaller vehicle seriously, Hunter said. In other words, people should avoid taking dimensional measurements and calling the FT-1 a grand-touring car.
Calty's starting point was to design a sports car with a theoretical $50,000 to $60,000 price tag, Hunter said. That meant designing something wild, but not so exotic that it pushed the car into the territory that would make it a Lexus.
"We didn't want [Toyota Motor top management] to see this and think it was a $150,000 car," Hunter said. "We also did the Lexus LF-LC [concept coupe] at Calty, so we wanted a different form vocabulary for this car. Anything that looked like the LF-LC was rejected. That car was more touring oriented, while this is a pure sports car."
Exterior: 'Functional beauty'
"We approached the design with the idea of 'functional beauty,' in that it should have a sense of purpose but still be beautiful," Hunter said.
Walking up to the car's front quarter shows the essence of the car's horsepower hugging the wheels close to the body and making the wheel flares taut.
"We wanted movement in every surface," Calty chief designer Alex Shen said. "The fundamental thing with a sports car is stance -- how you set up the proportion to set up wheels. We wanted it to have the broad shoulders of a purpose-built racecar."
As for the sculpting of the FT-1, Shen calls the processes "erosion" and "exogenetic," where outside forces such as wind sculpt the car.
"We wanted to see the air flow through and around the vehicle. We wanted large forms that are smooth and slippery, with strategic areas that create downforce," Shen said.
Remember, Calty was the studio that poured mud into water balloons to envision the slippery shapes of the original Lexus SC 400 coupe. These guys think differently than the rest of us.
But the idea of form for form's sake disappears when examining the technical needs of the car, Shen said.
The car's tail has a "trip edge" to emphasize downforce and to enable brake cooling. The front air intakes extend all the way to the rear diffuser for ground effects and aerodynamics, while the front intake vents relieve pressure in the front wheelhouse. In looking closely at the cabin's wrapped windshield and double-bubble roof, elements of the original 2000GT are noticeable.
A key feature of sports cars is the location of the A-pillar. Raking it forward makes the windshield look "faster," and the car's power appears more evenly distributed front and rear. Functionally, however, it sacrifices forward visibility.
Making the A-pillar more upright and locating it further back in the body is classic sports car styling, showing off a long engine bay and placing the emphasis on the rear wheels putting power to the pavement -- with the added benefit of excellent visibility.
"We saw that the Ferrari 458 Italia A-post was way back toward the driver. The Lamborghini Gallardo had the A-pillar way out by the wheels, and it felt more like fashion. We wanted to treat the cockpit as a totally separate element, all business," Hunter said.
Powertrain: Inline 6?
So what's under the hood?
As a show car, it's just a battery pack that can barely push the car onto a stage. But, theoretically, Calty "always thought of an inline-six, because it's in the Supra lineage," Hunter said.
Toyota doesn't make an inline-six anymore. But other automakers -- BMW, for instance -- still do. Hunter dismisses such theorizing. The engine could be a V-6, V-8, hybrid or some other package. Toyota and BMW last year announced a joint venture to build a next-generation sports car.
Hunter cuts off the conversation quickly: "We can't talk about engines anyway."
Interior: Far out but do-able
Many show cars are merely exterior styling exercises to stretch the legs of designers. But the FT-1 has a complete interior that seems almost ready for production -- complete with a new telematics interface.
Calty's stylists deliberately tried to make the interior into something achievable, even if some of the effects seem a bit far out, said William Chergosky, Calty interior chief designer.
With the instrument panel, head-up displays are all the rage, and Calty took the FT-1 to a new level. Rather than beaming the information onto the windshield, a separate screen protrudes up from the steering column. All important information is right in the line of sight. If you remember the head-up targeting display from Maverick's fighter jet in Top Gun, you get the idea.
A cool display is one thing. Interacting with it at speed is another. When Chergosky's team tested competitive exotics at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, no driver recalled looking away from the track -- and down at the instrument panel -- to visually register any key information.
"We wanted the point of view to be from the knuckles up," Chergosky said.
The clickpad interface for the display resides on the steering wheel itself, with four quadrant-based buttons. All functions are just a couple of button clicks away, and unneeded info can be virtually pushed into the lower "dock" display where traditional gauges normally reside.
"Everything needs to be within the range of your fingertips," Chergosky said.
Calty also was adventurous in terms of its use of materials. Because the FT-1 is meant to make the driver feel like a superhero, Chergosky said, Calty looked at modern comic books to see what costumes are in fashion.
"Batman is basically wearing woven iron today. There's no more blue tights," Chergosky said.
Because this is a purpose-built track car, not a luxury sports car, materials were chosen to display an underlying function. The headliner construction appears more like a roll cage, with heat-treated aluminum giving the impression of a red-hot motorcycle muffler pipe.
Sports car wonks -- including CEO Akio Toyoda --note that the gas and brake pedal sprout from the floor, "church-organ" style, rather than hanging down from above.
Being a sports car, if it's to have an automatic transmission, paddle-shifting is a requirement.
With fixed paddles, you have windshield wipers and blinkers getting knocked when the driver is cornering and hunting for the paddles with his fingers. The FT-1's paddles would rotate with the steering wheel.
So, to the question: Is this the next Supra?
After several hours of rare openness in the studio, Hunter's answer becomes a bit evasive: "We have a history of making these kinds of concept cars, where it is not a pipe dream. We want to feel a possibility that it could happen. ... We can't help speculation."
While paying tribute to the history of Toyota sports cars, the Toyota FT-1 concept unveiled at the Detroit auto show wasn't specifically designed to be the next Supra.
Calty Design Research and Toyota Motor Corp. executives went out of their way to avoid using the word "Supra" for fear of giving the concept the aura of an official production sign-off. FT-1 stands for "Future Toyota."
But Toyota has a track record of developing concept cars that find their way to the street.
"We called this design 'Supra' in presentations. There was a big debate over the name. So it's 'FT-1' now," said Calty President Kevin Hunter. "We're not ignoring that we have a history. The name itself is a different matter."
With that in mind, if the FT-1 were to become a production car, viewers should think smaller. To be perceived as a serious sports car on the show floor, the FT-1 had to have stage presence. That meant the concept would be 10 percent larger than what a real-world vehicle would be, Hunter said.
Had Calty done a real-size concept, there was a risk show-goers and the media wouldn't take the smaller vehicle seriously, Hunter said. In other words, people should avoid taking dimensional measurements and calling the FT-1 a grand-touring car.
Calty's starting point was to design a sports car with a theoretical $50,000 to $60,000 price tag, Hunter said. That meant designing something wild, but not so exotic that it pushed the car into the territory that would make it a Lexus.
"We didn't want [Toyota Motor top management] to see this and think it was a $150,000 car," Hunter said. "We also did the Lexus LF-LC [concept coupe] at Calty, so we wanted a different form vocabulary for this car. Anything that looked like the LF-LC was rejected. That car was more touring oriented, while this is a pure sports car."
Exterior: 'Functional beauty'
"We approached the design with the idea of 'functional beauty,' in that it should have a sense of purpose but still be beautiful," Hunter said.
Walking up to the car's front quarter shows the essence of the car's horsepower hugging the wheels close to the body and making the wheel flares taut.
"We wanted movement in every surface," Calty chief designer Alex Shen said. "The fundamental thing with a sports car is stance -- how you set up the proportion to set up wheels. We wanted it to have the broad shoulders of a purpose-built racecar."
As for the sculpting of the FT-1, Shen calls the processes "erosion" and "exogenetic," where outside forces such as wind sculpt the car.
"We wanted to see the air flow through and around the vehicle. We wanted large forms that are smooth and slippery, with strategic areas that create downforce," Shen said.
Remember, Calty was the studio that poured mud into water balloons to envision the slippery shapes of the original Lexus SC 400 coupe. These guys think differently than the rest of us.
But the idea of form for form's sake disappears when examining the technical needs of the car, Shen said.
The car's tail has a "trip edge" to emphasize downforce and to enable brake cooling. The front air intakes extend all the way to the rear diffuser for ground effects and aerodynamics, while the front intake vents relieve pressure in the front wheelhouse. In looking closely at the cabin's wrapped windshield and double-bubble roof, elements of the original 2000GT are noticeable.
A key feature of sports cars is the location of the A-pillar. Raking it forward makes the windshield look "faster," and the car's power appears more evenly distributed front and rear. Functionally, however, it sacrifices forward visibility.
Making the A-pillar more upright and locating it further back in the body is classic sports car styling, showing off a long engine bay and placing the emphasis on the rear wheels putting power to the pavement -- with the added benefit of excellent visibility.
"We saw that the Ferrari 458 Italia A-post was way back toward the driver. The Lamborghini Gallardo had the A-pillar way out by the wheels, and it felt more like fashion. We wanted to treat the cockpit as a totally separate element, all business," Hunter said.
Powertrain: Inline 6?
So what's under the hood?
As a show car, it's just a battery pack that can barely push the car onto a stage. But, theoretically, Calty "always thought of an inline-six, because it's in the Supra lineage," Hunter said.
Toyota doesn't make an inline-six anymore. But other automakers -- BMW, for instance -- still do. Hunter dismisses such theorizing. The engine could be a V-6, V-8, hybrid or some other package. Toyota and BMW last year announced a joint venture to build a next-generation sports car.
Hunter cuts off the conversation quickly: "We can't talk about engines anyway."
Interior: Far out but do-able
Many show cars are merely exterior styling exercises to stretch the legs of designers. But the FT-1 has a complete interior that seems almost ready for production -- complete with a new telematics interface.
Calty's stylists deliberately tried to make the interior into something achievable, even if some of the effects seem a bit far out, said William Chergosky, Calty interior chief designer.
With the instrument panel, head-up displays are all the rage, and Calty took the FT-1 to a new level. Rather than beaming the information onto the windshield, a separate screen protrudes up from the steering column. All important information is right in the line of sight. If you remember the head-up targeting display from Maverick's fighter jet in Top Gun, you get the idea.
A cool display is one thing. Interacting with it at speed is another. When Chergosky's team tested competitive exotics at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, no driver recalled looking away from the track -- and down at the instrument panel -- to visually register any key information.
"We wanted the point of view to be from the knuckles up," Chergosky said.
The clickpad interface for the display resides on the steering wheel itself, with four quadrant-based buttons. All functions are just a couple of button clicks away, and unneeded info can be virtually pushed into the lower "dock" display where traditional gauges normally reside.
"Everything needs to be within the range of your fingertips," Chergosky said.
Calty also was adventurous in terms of its use of materials. Because the FT-1 is meant to make the driver feel like a superhero, Chergosky said, Calty looked at modern comic books to see what costumes are in fashion.
"Batman is basically wearing woven iron today. There's no more blue tights," Chergosky said.
Because this is a purpose-built track car, not a luxury sports car, materials were chosen to display an underlying function. The headliner construction appears more like a roll cage, with heat-treated aluminum giving the impression of a red-hot motorcycle muffler pipe.
Sports car wonks -- including CEO Akio Toyoda --note that the gas and brake pedal sprout from the floor, "church-organ" style, rather than hanging down from above.
Being a sports car, if it's to have an automatic transmission, paddle-shifting is a requirement.
With fixed paddles, you have windshield wipers and blinkers getting knocked when the driver is cornering and hunting for the paddles with his fingers. The FT-1's paddles would rotate with the steering wheel.
So, to the question: Is this the next Supra?
After several hours of rare openness in the studio, Hunter's answer becomes a bit evasive: "We have a history of making these kinds of concept cars, where it is not a pipe dream. We want to feel a possibility that it could happen. ... We can't help speculation."