Categories: Cars

Toyota Made A Camry With Two Engines, Seven Cylinders, And 700 HP

Toyota’s Gazoo Racing arm built an all-wheel-drive Camry with two engines.
The front wheels are driven by the GR Yaris/GR Corolla’s three-cylinder engine.
The rear axle is powered by a newly developed four-cylinder engine coming to GR models.

This past weekend’s 24-hour Super Taikyu endurance race gave local automakers a chance to show what they’ve been working on. Subaru teased three new production-bound cars with manual gearboxes, while Toyota unveiled a pair of wild Camry projects it certainly won’t sell. By far the more interesting of the two wears wide fenders and an aggressive aero kit, but the real surprise lies beneath the skin.

Toyota’s Gazoo Racing division pulled out the stock four-cylinder engine and replaced it with a smaller three-cylinder unit. While that might sound like a downgrade, the transplanted engine doesn’t come from an economy car. Instead, the “G16E-GTS” is borrowed from the GR Yaris, GR Corolla, and the lesser-known Lexus LBX Morizo RR. It produces 300 horsepower and drives the front axle.

Even considering only the turbocharged 1.6-liter engine, this Camry is already the most powerful version of the current-generation midsize sedan. However, there’s a second engine mounted in the back, where you’d normally expect to find the rear seats. The engine in question is Gazoo Racing’s new turbocharged four-cylinder, which is destined for future Toyota performance cars. Codenamed “G20E,” it displaces 2.0 liters and generates about 400 horsepower, all of which is sent to the rear axle.

Not The First Car To Have Two Engines

GR’s skunkworks team engineered an all-wheel-drive Camry with a side-exit exhaust system and somewhere in the neighborhood of 700 horsepower. For obvious reasons, it won’t enter production, much like the Volkswagen Scirocco Bi-Motor and Mercedes A38 AMG before it. Mind you, this isn’t the Camry with the highest cylinder count; that title belongs to the NASCAR-spec version and its V8.

While Gazoo Racing stuffed two engines into a Camry, Toyota Racing unveiled a Bōsōzoku-style build powered by the new four-cylinder engine installed under the hood. Although it lacked a rear-mounted powertrain, it still attracted plenty of attention thanks to its outrageous interior, complete with a fur-covered dashboard, a glass shift knob, cigars, and even a chandelier.

Although Toyota remains tight-lipped about additional technical specifications, reports from Japan claim the black Camry has been converted to rear-wheel drive, with power routed through a manual gearbox. It goes without saying that, like the dual-engine white car, this one was built purely as a showpiece.

Motor1’s Take: It’s refreshing to see the world’s largest automaker give its engineering teams the freedom to have some fun from time to time. Neither Camry stands any chance of reaching production, but it’s fascinating to see what happens when imagination runs wild.

We can only hope the new 400-horsepower engine eventually finds its way into a GR Camry. In the meantime, it’s likely to make its debut in the long-awaited and officially confirmed return of the Celica. Toyota has also hinted at a new MR2 and already confirmed there will be a next-generation Supra, so there’s clearly something exciting on the horizon.