Toyota’s new Camry GT-S concept focuses on “performance-inspired styling” and “functional upgrades”.
It wasn’t that long ago that you could buy an everyday Toyota Camry with a 302-horsepower V6 engine and some notable performance upgrades. The Camry TRD offered up a tantalizing package to buyers still interested in sporty mainstream sedans, being the last six-cylinder option in its class before the current generation went hybrid-only. Now, the Camry GT-S Concept hitting this year’s SEMA Show in Las Vegas aims to offer up a performance take on this new generation — in the spirit of past GT-S models like the Corolla and Celica — though this build is a little closer to reality than you might think.
So, what is the Camry GT-S Concept all about?
According to Toyota CALTY Design Research chief Adam Rabinowitz, this car is a “study in what a performance and style package could mean for Camry in the future. Our goal was to create something aspirational yet attainable, and to use this platform to gather valuable feedback from consumers.”
Does it have a V6 like the old TRD for some extra grunt then? Well, no. The GT-S is based on the current Camry XSE AWD Hybrid, with the same 232 horspower, 2.5-liter four-cylinder and electric motor setup as that model. What you do get, though, are adjustable coilovers that lower the ride by 1.5 inches. You also get 20-inch wheels and 14.3 inch, 8-piston front brake rotors coupled with 14.0-inch, 6-piston rear rotors. The GT-S further gets low-profile 245/35-R20 tires to round out the actual mechanical upgrades.
On the styling front, the Camry GT-S Concept is jazzed up with Inferno Flare paint with a large black strip running from the nose of the car, up the hood and all the way back to the decklid and rear spoiler. The front gets a more aggressive lower fascia design, while you also get GT-S-branded side skirts on the sides and a redesigned rear bumper integrating a new exhaust setup.
If you’re wondering why there’s no more power or why you’d necessarily need substantially larger brakes when you don’t get any more power, so am I. But Toyota insists this car be “grounded in reality — it’s the kind of car customers can picture themselves driving home.”
Will we actually see this hit dealerships?
That is one up side of bringing a build that doesn’t go wild with the performance upgrades like, say, a Hellcat-powered Prius. While the automaker hasn’t slated it for production just yet, it could absolutely slot this in as a sportier upgrade to the XSE if it wanted to, and if the public reception is warm enough.
As it happens, Toyota will have more than two dozen concept builds featuring vehicles across its whole lineup. It calls its theme this year “Powered by Possibility”, bringing in concepts powered strictly by internal combustion as well as its hybrid, plug-in hybrid and battery electric lines. Those concepts will be on the floor at SEMA from November 4-7 at the Las Vegas Convention Center, and we’ll be on the ground covering the automaker’s builds and much more.
