The Toyota FT-1 concept is a pure performance, track-focused sports car model created by CALTY Design Research, Toyota's North American Design branch. The FT-1 concept is a symbol that captures elements of the emotion and energy we can expect to see in future Toyota vehicle designs. Its design is heavily influenced by Toyota's long sports car tradition that includes vehicles such as 2000GT, Celica, Supra and most recently, FT-86 (Scion F-RS)

The suspense is over. After years of hand wringing, diehard fans of Toyota’s defunct but beloved Supra sports car have been given hope of a successor.

Their salvation comes in the form of the FT-1 concept car, which Toyota unveiled today at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit.

Although the Japanese automaker has not said whether it will build a production version of the curvaceous coupe, nor whether it would be called “Supra” if it did, the FT-1 is groundbreaking nonetheless. It represents the culmination of Toyota’s efforts to infuse excitement into its vehicles, much as the company’s luxury division, Lexus, is already doing.

The Toyota FT-1 concept is a stake in the ground that signifies no more boring cars for Toyota.

“It really expresses the direction that we’re moving in and the company that we’re evolving into, which is one that develops more exciting vehicles with heart, more emotion, more driver-engaged products that speak to the excitement of driving,” said Kevin Hunter, president of Toyota’s Calty Design Research studio, in a one-on-one interview ahead of the concept car’s unveiling at the Detroit auto show.

The FT-1 has design elements that pay homage to past Toyota sports cars. The slant of the roofline and the wraparound windshield with blacked out roof pillars evoke the styling of the 2000GT, a slinky two-seater built from 1967 to 1970 and famously featured in the James Bond film “You Only Live Twice.” The rear of the FT-1 pays homage to the last generation of the Supra, called the Mark IV, which was built from 1993 through 2002.

The 2000GT and Supra lineage is also evident in the long hood of the FT-1. Both the 2000GT and Supra featured so-called in-line six-cylinder engines, which were long and dictated a certain proportion at the front of the car. “Even though we’re not saying exactly what engine is in the FT-1, we thought at least it should feel like it has a long hood and it has a powerful engine under the hood,” Hunter said.

Though it draws on Toyota’s heritage, the FT-1 is far from just a rehash of previous sports cars. “The surfacing is all new. We refer to it as ‘function sculpting,’ and that, I think, is in line with our bigger fundamental design philosophy of ‘vibrant clarity,’” Hunter said. “There’s something rational happening and there’s something emotional going on as well. And it’s kind of those two values merging that creates something new.”

The entire car appears to be shaped by the wind. Deeply sculpted intakes and outlets improve aerodynamics and channel air to cool the engine and other components. “It has to be dynamic, exciting, but it also has to function well as a sports car,” Hunter said.

This design and engineering ethos wrapped up in one can also be found at the pinnacle of motorsports: Formula One. Not by coincidence, the pointy nose of the FT-1 recalls the shape of an Formula One race car. “It was kind of on our mind, I guess, as we were designing the car,” Hunter said

The interior of the FT-1 is stripped down like that of a race car.

Toyota designers completely rethought how the driver should interact with the vehicle and devised a head-up display, like something from a fighter jet, and large buttons on the steering that look like a video game controller. The goal was to reduce driver distraction.

“It’s very easy for your thumb to identify the input points that relate to the heads-up display,” Hunter said. “So ideally, you can do it blindly, not looking down at the steering wheel and always keep your eyes focused on the road.”

Whereas current cars, including Lexus models, use controllers on the center console to manipulate menus on a screen mounted in the middle of the dashboard, everything on the FT-1 is managed right on the head-up display using only the steering wheel controls. This sort of technology could eventually end up on future production vehicles, Hunter said.

Despite all of the Toyota FT-1’s exotic features, which also include a movable rear wing that raises at high speeds to increase stability, the concept is meant to project the possibility of an affordable sports car in keeping with Toyota’s position as a mass-market automaker. A production version of the FT-1 would cost far less than a Porsche or Ferrari, Hunter said.

“We felt it was important to bring a halo image to the Toyota brand, which could use a bit of strengthening in that area,” he said. “We know that Lexus has the LFA, Scion has the FR-S, and the Toyota brand is really lacking a sports car right now.”

Calty designers came up with the idea for the FT-1 a couple of years ago. They’ve been waiting for the right moment to bring it into the limelight.

To help sway board members and Toyota president Akio Toyoda to produce the concept car, Calty designers worked with Sony to create a virtual version of the FT-1 that could be “driven” in the video game Gran Turismo.

This turned out to be a shrewd move. When the FT-1 was presented in video-game form to the board, Toyoda was able to complete a virtual lap of Japan’s Fuji Speedway faster than his best real-world lap time in his own personal LFA supercar.

Needless to say, the FT-1 got the green light, which is to be expected, considering Toyoda’s passion for motor sports.

“This kind of high-performance car I think is ideal to symbolize the direction that our company is moving in,” Hunter said. “We all know Akio Toyoda said we need to develop more cool cars and more emotional cars. And he used the term ‘waku doki,’ which means ‘with great passion and from the heart.’ We need to capture this kind of spirit in our new vehicles.”

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DETROIT, Michigan (Jan. 13, 2014) - Toyota virtually blew the doors off the North American International Auto Show with the reveal of the stunning FT-1 sports car concept. First devised by Calty Design Research in the Sony PlayStation Gran Turismo game environment, FT-1 leapt from the screen to the stage in a race-inspired press conference at COBO Hall.

The name says it all. FT-1 stands for “Future Toyota,” and the number “1” represents the ultimate. According to its designers at Calty Design Research, the FT-1 Concept is the ultimate expression of a Toyota coupe design, building upon Toyota’s rich sports coupe heritage dating back to the 2000GT, Celica, Supra, MR2 and most recently Scion FR-S. In addition, the concept draws inspiration from Calty’s more recent sports car concept work such as FT-HS (2007) and the Lexus LF-LC (2012).

The project started nearly two years ago and represents a labor of love by a passionate, dedicated and gifted Calty design team. “The FT-1 is a dream-project for a designer and car enthusiast like myself,” said Alex Shen, Calty’s Studio Chief Designer. “Our team was heavily influenced by Toyota’s sports car past, especially Celica and Supra, and we sought to capture some of that history. It is an aggressive, track-focused sports car concept with a presence that has been amplified for shock and awe.”

The FT-1’s audacious design represents the pinnacle of Calty’s 40th year of operation. Guided by the Toyota design ethos of Vibrant Clarity, a unique fusion of both emotional and rational factors that delivers a more exciting and dramatic design expression with unique Toyota identity, the concept is a spiritual pace car for Toyota Global Design. The goal of this ideological shift is to develop future generations of products that better connect emotionally with Toyota’s global consumer base.

Traditionally, Toyota’s design decisions have been driven by consensus among a large group of stakeholders. Under Akio Toyoda’s stated directive to invigorate Toyota products with energy, passion and “Waku-Doki” (translation: a palpable heart-pounding sense of excitement), the approval process has been streamlined. This new approach aims to produce cars that connect more deeply with customers, generating a more satisfying ownership experience that complements Toyota’s legendary reputation for quality, dependability and reliability.

“Function-sculpting” design language yields curved, muscular, expressive body forms seemingly shaped by the wind. Inlets, ducting, and vents are features of the exterior design that help reinforce its track–ready nature with elements of purposeful airflow management. At higher speeds a retractable rear wing deploys and tilts forward to create additional downforce. The body’s athleticism is expressed with taut surfaces and dramatic fender forms that seduce the eyes when covered in an unapologetically red hue.

The front engine rear-wheel drive configuration locates the cockpit far rearward within the wheelbase to improve weight distribution. This design element also helps create the classic sportscar proportions one would expect from a vehicle poised to dominate even the most challenging road course. The cockpit’s wraparound windshield and side glass openings are a distinct nod to the design of the legendary Toyota 2000GT.

The interior is a focused, highly functional “place of business” that locates the driver at the controls behind an F1 inspired steering-wheel. The intimate, low slung cockpit has its A-pillars set far back to help optimize cornering vision and sensation of the cabin’s intimacy. A delta-shaped display zone surrounds and integrates the driver to provide an exhilarating sense of being connected to the vehicle. The cockpit’s sense of minimalism adds to the purposefulness of the driver-focused environment with an emphasis on light weight components such as the composite seat covered with just the right amount of padding in only the areas that come into contact with the driver. A color heads-up display keeps the driver’s attention on the road ahead, with vital information projected just above the steering wheel within the driver’s line of sight.

While technical specifications do not accompany the concept, one can assume that the FT-1 represents an ideally balanced front-engine, rear wheel-drive layout that is powered by a high-technology, high performance internal combustion engine. Beneath a transparent glass hood, an ambiguous engine cover hides a powerplant left to the imagination of the onlooker.

In preparation for pitching the concept to Toyota management, Calty worked with Polyphony Digital, creators of the popular Gran Turismo driving simulator, to bring FT-1 to life in a virtual world that captured the excitement, passion and performance conveyed by the concept model. Toyota executives were offered the opportunity to take FT-1 for a timed lap around a computer-generated Fuji Speedway. Behind the wheel of the concept, Toyota president Akio Toyoda, an accomplished race car driver, completed the virtual circuit faster than his best real-world lap time at Fuji in his LFA. From that moment, he was convinced and the concept was approved to be built in model-form for the international auto show circuit.

For Toyota, this concept embodies the possibilities of the new and exciting design mission ahead. “Sports cars represent the ultimate driving expression in its purest form. As car enthusiasts ourselves, this is the kind of project we dream about working on,” said Calty Design Research president Kevin Hunter. “Beyond its obvious five-alarm visual impact, FT-1 is symbolic of a new chapter for Toyota Global Design. This provocative concept truly captures the passion, excitement, and energy of the Toyota we are evolving into and embodies elements of the emotion and performance that Toyota will imprint upon future production designs.”