Toyota Gazoo Racing’s product is a top-down sportscar, but not in the mold you’d immediately imagine: meet the Copen GR Sport. A top-down kei car currently built by Toyota’s affiliate company, Daihatsu, it’s been enhanced by Toyota’s motorsports division thanks to their motorsports knowledge.
With kei cars having strict limits on their engine displacement (a turbocharged 660-cc engine), Toyota Gazoo’s work concentrated on improving the body rigidity and suspension tuning. To do this, they added a front brace and changed the shape of the center body brace. The suspension was changed with new shock absorbers to maximize grip, and the electric power steering was recalibrated. At all four corners sit forged matte gray BBS wheels.
Design-wise, the Copen GR Sport gets a new grille rocking what Toyota calls “Functional Matrix.” This improves cooling performance while an under spoiler in the front bumper does the same with aerodynamics. At the back? Is a new rear bumper with a diffuser-like design. Inside, it gets Recaro sport seats and a dedicated triple meter display.
The price for the Toyota Copen GR Sport? It starts at 2.435 million yen (~ P 1.157 million) for the 5-speed manual and 2.380 million yen (~ P 1.131 million) for the CVT. Yes, in this case, the manual is the more expensive option but also because it gets the added bonus of a “Front super Limited Slip Differential.”
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