Could Toyota’s next significant collaboration be with Porsche?

Toyota has, of late, become something of an expert at collaborating with other car makers.

It produced the GT86 and BRZ sports coupes jointly with Subaru (although, in fairness, Toyota owns a big chunk of Subaru). It worked with BMW to create the new Supra alongside the Z4, and shares engines and bodyshells with PSA Peugeot Citroen for Aygo city car, and its 108 and C1 relatives.

Could a link-up with Porsche be on the horizon now? Well, it’s possible. It’s equally possible that Toyota’s chief engineer, Tetsuya Tada, was joking when he responded to a question from Philippines-based car magazine Autoindustryia.

When asked with whom he would most like to collaborate with on a next-generation MR2 sports car, Tada’s answer was immediate - “Porsche!”

Now, Tada has been known in the past to kid around, and also to speak somewhat out of turn, but he’s also liable to drop a nugget or two of gold in with the jokes.

To the Cork Independent, he last year suggested that Toyota’s next Gazoo Racing high-performance model could be a derivative of the heavy, luxurious, Century saloon, a car more akin to a Rolls than a Ferrari.

Guess what vehicle duly appeared on track a few months later (albeit in strictly one-off form)? Yup…

So maybe this is Tada’s way of revealing that at the very least talks have taken place?

It could well be.

If Toyota really wants to create a third sports car string to its bow, then a new MR2 is the obvious way to go, and one would sit as neatly next to the new Supra and the GT86 as it would in the hearts of car enthusiasts everywhere.

Porsche’s mid-engined Boxster and Cayman platform is also an obviously high-bar starting point for such a project, and it could well be that Porsche (and its VW Group overlords) might be keen to share the costs of developing a next-generation version with another car maker.

After all, right now Porsche can only amortise the cost of this platform across three model series — Boxster, Cayman, and 911 — whereas its SUV and saloon platforms can be shared with Audi, Bentley, and even Lamborghini.

It would be something of a departure from the last MR2, though.

The W30 MR2, which ceased production in 2007, was about as light, stripped out, and practicality-limited a car as ever made by a mainstream manufacturer.

A new MR2 based on a Boxster would be larger, heavier, and more luxurious by far.

It would also doubtless be difficult for Porsche and Toyota to balance out where in the marketplace the two cars would be pitched.

A Supra and a BMW Z4 would always and obviously sit at similar price points, but a new MR2 would have to be much cheaper than a Boxster.

The biggest barrier, though, would be the sheer lack of a market for sports cars.

Perhaps suprisingly, worldwide, the sports car market accounts for only 0.6 per cent, down from 0.7 per cent in 2018.

Added to that, the market has recently been dominated by larger and more powerful models such as the Ford Mustang, which has proven to be very popular.

Is it possible that Tada and Toyota are actually serious about this? Is it possible that the two largest and most profitable car makers in the world could be joined by the connective tissue of Porsche?

It’s far-fetched, but there’s arguably not a car-nut in the world who wouldn’t want to see it happen.

How many would be prepared to pony up hard cash for the resulting product remains an open question.