2015 Toyota FT-1 Concept – 24 Photos

The Toyota FT-1 is a concept car unveiled at the January 2014 North American International Auto Show. 'FT' stands for Future Toyota. While '1' means number one or the ultimate one. Little is known about this new concept car; other than that it has a front engine and rear wheel drive layout. Toyota did also state their new concept car draws inspiration from Toyota's past sports cars like the 2000GT, Supra, MR-2, and 2007FT-HS concept car. Toyota did not state whether the FT-1 would use the Supra name, or if it was even bound for production. However, Toyota did say if the FT-1 is approved from production to expect a price tag of around US$60,000.

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Work on the FT-1 began nearly two years ago. Kevin Hunter, the president of Calty Design Research in California stated that Lexus had the LFA and Scion has the FR-S, but Toyota has nothing. Mr. Hunter then pitched his idea to Toyota's CEO, Akio Toyoda for a halo flagship sports car for the Toyota brand. After receiving approval to build a concept, designers began to sketches ideas and different concepts. In the end, a front engine rear wheel drive layout was chosen. Toyota has not disclosed the cost of building its FT-1 concept, but it is noted that concept cars usually cost around a US$1 million to build. Hunter has stated FT-1 is still in the concept stage with no current production plans. He added that if the public's reaction is positive it would only help to move the FT-1 from concept to production and that anything is possible in the future. Alex Shen, the studio chief designer, also hinted at a US$60,000 price tag. He was quoted saying, "It's a Toyota, it ought to be affordable."

A second FT-1 was created and shown at the Monterey Jet Center in Monterey, California in August 2014. It was painted in a gray colour rather than the first car's red colour to shift perception of the vehicle.

FT-1 Vision Gran Turismo

To commemorate the 15th anniversary of the popular video game series, Gran Turismo 6 will feature a festival called "Vision Gran Turismo" (name reused from early GT5 trailer), featuring concept cars designed for the game by top automobile companies. Toyota created a unique design of the FT-1 concept called the FT-1 VGT, featuring more aggressive and race inspired body work similar to GT500 machine from SUPER GT series.

Article Source, Wikipedia - Toyota FT-1 Concept