The first fruit of an alliance between BMW and Toyota will be a two-seat sports car that will bring performance-boosting supercapacitor technology to a series-production model for the first time.
Confirmed by BMW chairman Norbert Reithofer and Toyota boss Akio Toyoda late last year, the new sports car will sire a radically different BMW Z4 replacement, previewed here, and a spiritual successor to the Supra, at which Toyota hinted with its FT-1 concept at the Detroit motor show in January.
The new sports car will feature a front-engined layout. But unlike Toyota’s FT-1 concept, it is likely to be four-wheel drive thanks to the use of a direct-injection petrol engine and electric motors. These power sources will form part of a high-tech supercapacitor-touting hybrid system that draws on technology and expertise gained from Toyota’s Le Mans LMP1 sports car programme.
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