Toyota GR Camry – the sports sedan we have been waiting for?

Back in early years of 2005-2008, Toyota used to produced a supercharged version of the Camry. It was called the TRD Aurion (TRD is short for Toyota Racing Development, long before Toyota Gazoo Racing took over as today’s go-fast outfit of Toyota) and it had a supercharged 3.5-litre V6 engine producing 241kW and 400Nm.

That was the last high performance Camry. The recently discontinued normally aspirated V6 Camry SX is close but doesn’t count. While Toyota is now aggressively electrifiying its line-up, it’s also churning out hot version of its cooking model left right and centre. And the latter may well reignite some sort of tuned up Camry.

The TRD badge won’t make a return to the Camry, but maybe Gazoo Racing will? We do hope, as these realistic renderings of the new Toyota GR Camry look pretty good. They are courtesy of AI Car Design and produced by automotive artist Cole Attisha. It has the usual GR styling cues including big intakes in the front bumper, side skirts, prominent rear haunches and massive rear diffuser. The base design of the current generation Camry is already a pretty sleek, and this GR upgrade takes it up to a whole new level.

Perhaps the biggest challenge with the GR Camry, if one ever gets to see the day of light, is what engine goes in it. The 1.5-litre turbo 3-cylinder engine powering the GR Yaris and GR Corolla is probably too small for a medium size sports sedan like the GR Camry, while the BMW-sourced 3.0-litre twin-turbo in-line 6-cylinder engine found in the GR Supra may be a bit overkill. But Toyota has an in-house built non GR engine that, with a bit of upgrade and tuning, may be just what the GR Camry needs. The turbo 2.4-litre 4-cylinder engine that used to power the Kluger before it was dropped this year produces 198kW and 420Nm, which in a car like the GR Camry should be plentiful. It could even borrow the all-wheel drive system from the Kluger.

Whatever Toyota decides to do with its hot-selling midsize sedan in the future, let’s just hope that some sort of high performance variant is considered.