Shocking New Toyota – I didn’t see this coming!

This is the new Toyota Celica, and it will blow your mind! So it's a mid-engine sports car with over 400 horsepower, and we should see it arrive on sale in 2028. Actually, this is not the actual Celica, but it's the car that will spawn it. This is the M Concept, so it's a GR Yaris with a 2-litre turbocharged engine that's new from Toyota, mounted just behind the front seats. It's mid-engined and it's used as the prototype test bed for the forthcoming Celica. You might be thinking, Matt, have you gone mad? The M Concept is a test bed for the next MR2, not the next Celica. The Celica has always been front-engined, not mid-engined, you fool. Well, yeah, but likewise, the MR2 has always been rear-wheel drive, not all-wheel drive. And I've spoken to some insiders at GR and they hinted that, while nothing has been confirmed yet, the Celica name for the mid-engined all-wheel drive car is more likely. So there. But while Toyota is being secretive about the name, they aren't about the car itself. In fact, they're going to let me drive the very first prototype. But before all that, we're going to see how fast another prototype version of the car is out on track. We are on the grid at Fuji Speedway. This is the mid-engined concept here and at the moment, in qualifying, it is ahead of the normal front-engined 1.6-litre GR Yaris. But what will happen after 24 hours of racing? We're going to find out. Also, you're going to find out what makes GR so different than normal Toyota. It's utter chaos. I even ended up in a random interview with Toyota's chairman, Akio Toyoda. So unexpected and so nuts. I need to tell you the story before we get to the drive because it will blow your mind. So Toyota Gazoo Racing is here and it's racing this M concept, which is a GR Yaris with a 2.0-litre 4-cylinder turbocharged engine mounted in the middle. And the reason they're here is to actually test the car. It's part of Toyota's ethos of making motorsport-bred, ever-better cars. The car's just around here, we're going to go check it out. That's embarrassing. I went to the wrong place, that was a different team. Gazoo Racing are actually over here. This is GR's chief engineer, Saito-san, and no one develops cars like him and his team. Normally, manufacturers create a brief, which tells engineers and designers exactly what kind of car to build. They'll then spend years developing it in secret. Then, if it's a sporty car, they'll fine-tune it around a racetrack. But Saito-san's team is doing the exact opposite. They don't even know how many seats the finished mid-engine car will have, but they're already racing this prototype alongside other GR Yaris test beds. That's because the driving experience is the most important thing about a new GR car. Get that right and everything else will follow. So this is a normal GR Yaris, which they're racing, though they're not actually racing it, because that noise is to signify that a car is coming into the pits. Bear with me. Toyota, Mazda and Nissan got together and spoke to the race organisers a while ago and said, listen, what we want to do is create this separate category where we're not actually racing cars, but we're involved in the race and we're going to use it for developing our cars. It's really, really clever. And that's what this car is here to do. So it's a GR Yaris. It's got the normal road-going engine, 280 horsepower. They're testing running it on biofuel. Another thing they're testing are the brakes. So this is a prototype braking system, which could eventually, if it's successful here, go on a road car. Another thing that they're changing on this car and testing is this, the aero package. So if you look at the back, see this wing? The swan-neck spoiler. So they're testing that. And what they'll do, they'll compare the performance of this car around the circuit to the racing GR Yarises. If they do better, they know their parts are working. If they do worse, they know they're not. So they won't be using them again. And depending on what they learn here, those actual parts will filter down onto road cars. You will be able to get them if they're successful here at the racetrack. It's all very clever. This is part of GR's test, brake, fix, repeat strategy, which is led by company chairman Akio Toyoda. He's also a master test driver, and he's actually competing in this endurance race under his pseudonym Morizo. But he's not the only one with a secret identity. You could say the same thing about the Toyota company as a whole. In some areas, they're very rigid. Then in others, they're totally rogue. And they often do things you'd never expect, as I was about to discover. Here's something strange that Toyota's unveiled. Have a look at this. So it's a Camry. It's built by Toyota GR. Look here, there's a three-cylinder engine there from the GR Yaris. But here is a four-cylinder engine. It's a seven-cylinder car. So what is this all about? Well, it's something to do with the competition between GR and Toyota Racing. So they've been coming up with different concepts for a Camry. And this is what Toyota Racing came up with. It's like a Japanese Bozo-style car with a huge shark nose, the big front splitter, and the crazy exhaust. It's even got a glass of bourbon and some cigars there. The whole point of this competition is to promote free thinking and general fun within Toyota. The initiative is led by Akio, who was here to unveil these cars with one of his vice presidents. The whole thing was nothing like a normal OEM presentation. It just felt like two dudes having a laugh with their cars. And then, just when I thought this event couldn't get any more random, I got the opportunity to have a rare interview with Akio himself. And this is what happened. Yeah, it's really funny, actually, that Toyota is a very strange corporation, that on one hand, you are very serious, very straight, very prestigious. Yeah, and then on the other side, it's basically just a bunch of boys having fun with cars. It's very strange. You're like a start-up company mentality, but in a massive corporation. It's a very unusual situation. Very unusual, I think. So you build cars that are fun. Other manufacturers aren't doing that at the moment. You seem to be the only company that does it. I have to make, like, a good balance sheet, or I have to make only carbon neutral. It's not exciting. I love smell. I love sounds. I love engines. I think you did an incredible job. Now, I own four Toyotas. I have an LC76 Land Cruiser. I have a Century. A Century? Yeah. I love the Century. And I've got two GR Yarises. You've got to tell me. I really need to know this. I'm not sure whether you can answer it. Was the GR Yaris, the mark one, you cannot have made a profit on that car? Very high. A salesperson came to me three times. Hey, Akio, we can sell it. And how many did you end up selling as of now? This didn't feel like talking to a company chairman. It was like chatting to a petrol head at a car meet. And that's not all, because I then got word that Toyota had also brought another exclusive new car to the track, and I could be one of the first people in the world to see it. This is the new Toyota Corolla GRMN. They've updated the standard Corolla with this new carbon fibre bonnet. It's also got new aero, which has been inspired by the hydrogen GR Corolla racing car. Now, down the side, you've also got carbon fibre wings, look, with these extra air vents. And at the back, you have an adjustable carbon fibre spoiler, and it's got five different positions. But that's not the biggest difference. They've only gone and removed the rear seats and replaced it with these brace bars, so the chassis is stiffer. It's also lighter by about 30 kilograms overall. They've also increased the torque of the engine by 15 newton metres, so it now has 415 newton metres, but you still have the same 305 horsepower. My favourite part of this car are these lovely composite racing bucket seats. I would love these in my GR Yaris. They fit me perfectly. You've also got Alcantara on the steering wheel. There's some Alcantara here on the dash, and they've created... Hello. We're not allowed to sit in. I'm sitting in it, though. I'm going to finish, and I'm here. They've also got some special material on the dash to stop reflections, and I better get out before I get told off even more. And there's some more Alcantara here, just on the door. What do you need to know else about this car? Well, they haven't released pricing, but they have said it's going to be available in Japan, it's going to be available in the United States, and it's going to be available in Australia, but unfortunately, it won't be available in the United Kingdom. In fact, we don't get the GR Corolla at all. In Japan only, they'll also be releasing this new Marizo edition, which is inspired by the company chairman, Akio Toyoda. It's got the same bonnet and wings and spoiler, but it actually has five seats inside, not just two. It has different suspension setup as well. This one has specially designed monotube dampers for a more sporty feel. It's also got an uprated all-wheel drive system for a more kind of aggressive torque split. And they've also changed the gearbox slightly for shorter, closer ratios. Shame we can't get it. But surprisingly, the technology in the hydrogen racing car may eventually appear in road cars you can actually buy. Hydrogen can power fuel cells for electric cars like the Toyota Mirai, but can also burn it in an internal combustion engine like in this Corolla. So you get all the noise, all the drama, and you can run it with a manual gearbox. This is why Akio is so keen to develop it as part of Toyota's alternative fuel strategy. But getting it to work is a huge engineering challenge. Although not because, as many people think, hydrogen is liable to explode. When they started racing the hydrogen Corolla back in 2020, they actually used a gas tank so they could get 12 laps out of it. They thought, you know, we need to be able to go further on a full tank. So they decided to use liquid hydrogen, and then they got 20 laps out of a tank. The problem with running liquid hydrogen is that it's so cold, 250 degrees. You also need a fuel pump to pump that liquid about, and it sits inside the fuel tank. And at such low temperatures, the metal wears out quickly. So what happens is when they're racing, they actually have to stop and replace the entire tank at about halfway through a 24-hour race. And that takes three hours. They're not really racing, are they? If you're going to leave the race for three hours. It's part of the development program. They're just using this race to develop these cars. They're hoping this year to be able to get 40 laps out of a tank of hydrogen fuel. And that matches an internal combustion engine car. And the whole idea behind this program is to give you the vibe, the feel of an internal combustion engine car, you know, changing gears, the noise, but using a carbon neutral fuel. Now in future, the idea is to get away from using this traditional style, like rotational pump to a linear pump that pumps backwards and forwards. And what this uses is superconductors to provide the electricity for the magnet and the pump. These operate efficiently at minus 250 degrees centigrade. And there's a demonstration they put on where they show the pump being able to lift a 10 kilogram weight with just 10 amps of electricity. If you bring it on 100 amps, which is easily doable because of the superconductor, you can actually lift 100 kilograms from this little pump, which is incredible. So that is the thing that they'll be testing probably next year. We've got the Corolla here towards the back of the grid. Now, one of the reasons for this is that they're not running full power. And what they're doing here is not seeing how quick it can go, more how reliable they can make it. And the first driver is going to be Marisa Sanzo, Akio Toyoda. So he's doing the first stint. He's smart. The first stint is the best thing to do. Fresh car, fresh tires, not having to do it in the night. We have the M Concept GR Yaris starting in 26th. Now the normal GR Yaris that they're using to test different parts, such as the brakes and the aero and stuff, that is down here in 30th place. There's not too much gap between them. Be interesting to see how it plays out over the whole 24 hours. So the race got underway and it soon became a battle of the GR Yaris with privateer teams, the normal GR test bed and the new mid-engine M Concept swapping positions. However, after 24 hours, the normal Yaris finished 24th and the M Concept actually finished last but one in 54th position. Now that doesn't sound very promising, but just like with the hydrogen car, the main aim of this race was to test the car's reliability, not its outright pace. A few things did break and they fixed them and learnt from them. And that is the most important thing. In fact, one of the engineers told me it was actually faster than the standard GR on the straights, but it's still a bit twitchy in the corners. And that was one of the last things I needed to hear because now I'm about to be one of the first people ever outside of Toyota to drive this thing. Hopefully I won't crash it. We've come to Toyota's test facility in Shimoyama, which is about a four-hour drive west of Tokyo. It's up in the mountains. So this is where we're going to get to drive the car. We're actually on a bus with the curtains drawn. I thought they had the curtains drawn to keep us nice and cool inside, but it's nice because it's a weekday and they've got loads of prototypes testing that they don't want us seeing or photographing. So we're probably gonna have to put the camera away. So we're inside the facility now and we've got cars lined up. I'm going to talk you through them. This is the original concept when they're testing the mid-engine setup. So it's got the 1.6 litre three-pot engine, but it's mounted in the middle. I'm going to get to drive this on a rally course. Then there is, I think it's a third generation prototype here, where it's got the two litre turbo, the new G20E engine in it. This is the intercooler there. If you look at the back, you can see different exhaust and stuff like that. So I think we're going to see the very latest prototype in a moment, but it's all a little bit confusing. Not entirely sure what we're going to see, what we're going to get to do. We're just going to see what we can get away with. This is crazy. This is so lucky getting to do this because normally you don't get to test a car so early in its development like this, but here I am. One of the few people in the world ever going to get to drive the prototype before it comes out as a real car. The Celica. Remember, it's going to be the Celica. Though no one's saying that here, but it will be. So before I go in the concept, and that is the latest concept, so that's version five, I'm just going to go out in this Mark 1 GR Yaris GR MN just to see what a normal high-performance Yaris feels like. Hello, you all right? My name is Kato. Kato. So we're heading out on what they call route number three, and it's five kilometres long, goes through an elevation change of about 75 metres. It's essentially their version of the Nürburgring. I've actually driven this course myself already about a year and a half ago, and it's demanding. Well, I actually went around in this car, but I wasn't allowed to go this quick. Hold it on. The interesting thing is going to be comparing this to the mid-engine concept. Well, this bit's tricky. Whoa. It's a very technical course. You can feel the car pushing a little bit there. So I wonder how the mid-engine concept will do. Yeah, I feel a little bit shaky after that because it's so intense, that course. And now I'm going to go out in the monster. But before that, I need to tell you exactly what makes this mid-engine prototype so special. So what we have buried in here is Toyota's new G20e four-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine. This is supposed to be able to produce around 400 horsepower, and it's mounted just in front of the rear wheel, so it's mid-engined, and it drives all four wheels via a four-wheel drive system, which can send 100% of the power and torque to the rear wheels. And as soon as I went out for my first passenger lap, it became obvious this was a totally different beast. I'll tell you what, it's certainly louder now with the engine just there. It's also hot. Whoa. Right, this is different straight away, and it's sliding straight away. Whoa. F***ing hell, man. This is wicked. It's, like, constantly rotating. It's so different. It's just so... Whoa, this will be brilliant. Whoa. He's just, like, totally backed it in there. Oh, it's getting really hot in there. Now, he's having to slow down quite a lot there, because he was rotating and he would have just spun it. Whoa. I thought it was going to, like, spin then. It's wild. They're slightly frightened. This is wild. It feels totally different, like, totally different. I mean, it's faster. You can tell they had the performance from the engine, but it's a totally different feel. Wow. When the other car was pushing, this is rotating. That was wild. F***ing hell. Scared me a little bit. I'm gonna buy one. Damn, I'm gonna have to buy another car. When do you think the earliest would be that it might be on sale? Uh, I don't know. Two years, maybe? I don't know. Oh, you can't say? Okay. This is the mid-engine Yaris I'm going to be driving. It actually uses a version of the standard GR Yaris's engine, so it's a 1.6, not a 2-litre. This is the first concept they actually developed. I'm going to go in as a passenger first, learn the course, and then we're going to switch over and I'm going to drive it. Let's see what it's like on the gravel. Hello, Katsuka-san. Hello. Katsuka-san is a professional rally driver. He's actually father of Taka, who competes in the WRC4 Toyota GR. He knows how to drive. That's scary down there. Oh, my God. It seems... Wow, it seems a perfect setup for it, you know. It looks like a wicked tent, like, whoo, whoo, whoo, drive this. Yeah, that was a lot of fun, that was. Just how graceful it is, like, dancing around. Well, with him driving, obviously. Didn't feel quite as manic as on the track. It was just, everything was happening a bit slower. I liked it. I was still slightly nervous, but then I discovered that even if I damaged this unique prototype, it wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing. GR's mantra is test, brake, fix, repeat. And that's what's going on here. So, you see this engine here? This was from the original GR Yaris. After it was launched, they run it in some rally stages, various testing, and it had pre-ignition, which destroyed the engine. Something you do when you're normally driving, like a customer. But because of that, they reprogrammed the ignition timing, so it wouldn't happen in the second generation car. Those are the bits here, where they've been testing it. So, if you look, that's a transfer case. This was before the car was actually launched. Marisa-san, driving the car, thousand laps on gravel, overheated it and damaged the transfer. So they beefed it up for the road car. Now, it's mad to have a chairman testing cars like this, but it's even madder when the chairman tests the safety kit accidentally on the car. He rolled a GR Yaris while testing it. They'd never tested the rollover on the car, but the chairman went and did it. Now, no one has rolled the M Concept yet, but one day somebody might as part of the testing. Hopefully, it's not going to be me today. This is it. Finally, the time has come. I'm going to drive this mid-engine GR Yaris. I'm going to take Saito-san with me in the passenger seat, because if I break it, at least I've got a responsible adult with me. Although, I'm not sure how responsible Saito-san is, because he's letting us do all this stuff. He's crazy. So, it could be an adventure. Let's find out how it goes. Remember, drive, break, fix, repeat. They have to forgive me if I break it. Okay, I'm a little bit nervous. Nervous? Yeah, a little bit. Because you're sat next to me, and if my driving's rubbish, give me some revs, then just dump the clutch. Oh, I bombed. Terrible. Ah, I should have been in first. First gear is better. We're done. I'm not used to driving on gravel, as you can tell. So, I couldn't get it rotating at first, but then you just do it on the power, and it automatically does it, doesn't it? It'll be better when they've got the finished road car with air conditioning. But yeah, a lot of fun. It's different driving on gravel, it really is. You can feel like digging down, getting traction, and once it starts just going, once you've got it rotating, it just keeps on going. It's quite easy to do, even for a ham-fisted idiot like me. I just want to say a huge thank you to Toyota for making this possible, and let me have a play in their prototype mid-engine concept. I do wonder, though, what tuners will do to this car when it finally comes out, because what is possible with a normal Yaris is crazy. And if you want to see exactly what I mean, watch that video there where a GR Yaris takes on a Lamborghini Aventador SVJ. It will blow your mind. And to make sure you don't miss out when I go to the next stage of the story for this particular car, which will be coming up, subscribe to this channel. Thanks for watching, and I'll see you in the next one.