Toyota MTRC concept
In its ongoing effort to change its image from Uncle Phil, the best darned accountant in Saskatoon, to something even slightly less square, Toyota will unveil yet sporty concept car at the Geneva Motor Show in early March.
This time it's the ''outrageous Motor Triathlon Race Car (MTRC),'' which Toyota says is like a remote control toy car and is the firm's ''response to future customer demands.'' It's not really a car for the street so much as it is a car for the virtual street, since the only place the MTRC is going to appear is on a computer screen.
The MTRC is a tandem two-seater that combines off-road ability, sports car performance and motor sport derived high technology, says Toyota, which the company says proves that it ''is now targeting not only the customers of today, but has also tapped into what will appeal to future generations.''
MTRC was designed and built at Toyota's European design studio, ED2, and is propelled by four in-wheel electric motors powered by a Toyota fuel cell stack. Toyota says this allowed the stylists ''much more freedom when designing the shape of the car than a conventional internal combustion engine and four-wheel drive transmission would allow.''
According to Toyota, MTRC has been conceived from the outset to compete in three different environments, as if in an automotive triathlon -- off-road, race track and city street circuits.
If that combination of tracks seems unusual, says Toyota, it's probably because you're not one of the millions of people ''who play and enjoy car racing computer games where part of the attraction is dramatic, high speed dicing through varied, realistic environments.''
To tap into all of that latent interest, Toyota has arranged for the MTRC to be ''driven'' in the upcoming Gran Turismo 4, the next version of the video game developed by Sony Computer Entertainment and Polyphony Digital.
While the MTRC will be available to drive on your computer soon, don't look for it to be turning up anytime soon on the street.