Toyota coupe concept for Tokyo

Toyota's rear-wheel drive, boxer engined FT-86 coupe concept. Photo / Supplied

Toyota is showing this new coupe concept car, the FT-86, at the Tokyo Motor Show.

The event, in its 41st year, opens on 24 October.

Toyota fans will be anxiously hoping that the FT-86 is a serious statement of intent for a future production model, rather a mere flight of fancy, because the Japanese manufacturer hasn't really offered anything in this bracket since it stopped making the Celica.

Toyota says the FT-86 has rear-wheel drive - the mark of a serious sports model - and that its 2.0 litre engine is a boxer, a layout strongly associated with fellow Japanese manufacturer Subaru.

That information lends quite a bit of substance to long-running reports that a jointly-developed Subaru/Toyota sports car is on the way.

- THE INDEPENDENT