Are we looking at the new Toyota MR2? Toyota trots out bonkers mid-engine 2.0-litre turbo GR Yaris monster at Auto Salon potentially hinting at iconic sports car's imminent revival

Toyota has pulled out all the stops at this year’s Tokyo Auto Salon, unveiling three striking examples of its GR Yaris hot hatch under the banner of ‘Car-making at Nürburgring’.

These include a competition test and research prototype designed to extend the car’s potential on road and track.

The GR Yaris M Concept features a mid-mounted, 2.0-litre, inline turbo four-cylinder engine and a full race set-up enabling it to compete in 24 hour endurance events which Toyota has consistently used as test bed for new designs and technology, with company Chairman Akio Toyoda (aka ‘Master Driver’ Morizo) a regular competitor in around the clock races at (the Toyota owned) Fuji Speedway.

In recent years the key focus has been development of a competition version of the GR Corolla powered by a 1.3-litre, three-cylinder combustion engine using hydrogen as a liquid fuel.

And now, the GR Yaris M Concept looks set to join it, with a full-house GRMN (Gazoo Racing Meister of the Nurburgring) version a possible production car development.

Toyota says the car will be “repeatedly driven to failure and then repaired in the extreme conditions of racing, with feedback from Morizo and professional drivers incorporated”.

Question is, why? The 2.0-litre turbo-petrol engine is expected to be the brand's new performance halo that will invigorate its sports car line-up.

The fact the engine is mounted mid-ship in the Yaris Mule suggests that, like MG did with a Metro van prior to the TF sports car's launch, Toyota might be testing its new MR2 layout in public. Interesting.

Also on display is another “evolved”, although slightly more conventional, GR Yaris racing car. It features Gazoo Racing’s newly developed eight-speed ‘Direct Automatic Transmission’ (DAT).

Toyota claims the DAT’s optimised software senses driver brake and accelerator inputs to anticipate optimal gear shift points before changes in vehicle behaviour occur.

To be run by Toyota Gazoo Racing (in collaboration with Rookie Racing) in the Nürburgring Langstrecken Series (NLS) this competition Yaris will mark Toyota’s return to the Nürburgring 24 Hours endurance race after a six-year hiatus.

The final member of the GR Yaris trio is an Aero Package prototype road car featuring six body elements including strakes in the nose, vented fender flairs and a variable rear wing (with “situation-responsive” adjustable angle).