Celica/Echo/Spyder were all a special project by Toyota to appeal to younger customers. They had watched their typical customer age get older and older in recent years and decided that they needed something fresh...
So - they started a team called the "Genesis Group" which was given freedom of design not seen in Toyota for at least a few years.
I have heard that there was some corporate dissapointment with the results (Celica/Echo/Mr2-Spyder) and that the Genesis group was "disbanded"... Too bad - maybe we won't be seeing any more "radical" designs from Toyota for a while.
I was very impessed with how they managed to keep the weight down on those models. The MR2-Spyder is so light that it offers performance comparable to the IS300 but with only 138hp. The Celica is "light enough" that it offers IS300 performance with 180hp.
So - they started a team called the "Genesis Group" which was given freedom of design not seen in Toyota for at least a few years.
I have heard that there was some corporate dissapointment with the results (Celica/Echo/Mr2-Spyder) and that the Genesis group was "disbanded"... Too bad - maybe we won't be seeing any more "radical" designs from Toyota for a while.
I was very impessed with how they managed to keep the weight down on those models. The MR2-Spyder is so light that it offers performance comparable to the IS300 but with only 138hp. The Celica is "light enough" that it offers IS300 performance with 180hp.
