Toyota’s CALTY design studio in California is celebrating its 50th birthday. The group was started in 1973 and has worked on several production cars for the Japanese company since then. Some of its work was never produced, like the mid-engined Toyota MX-1 and MX-2. Some pictures were put together to honor CALTY’s 50th anniversary, and the two cars were among them. Photos of a fourth-generation Supra concept and other interesting design ideas have been shared with the two-door sports cars. In general, it’s an exciting look into what might have been. The maker only mentioned clear things from the pictures and didn’t mention CALTY’s two high-performance mid-engined ideas. It goes without saying, though, that these two cars have never been made. The closest car to the MX-1 or MX-2 with Mazda-equivalent names was the Toyota MR2, which only shared the mid-engine layout of the two cars. Besides the two unfinished sports cars, other enthusiast cars were on show. The car company also showed off CALTY’s design for the A80 Supra and a FJ40 concept. Even though Toyota never made its two-door sports GT, some of its features were added to the fourth-generation car. To celebrate CALTY’s 50th birthday, Toyota put out a new drawing along with these old ideas. The maker says it’s “built to conquer rugged terrain on Earth and beyond,” plus “embodies a unique mix of adaptive technology and heritage design cues from the original FJ40 Land Cruiser.” The name of it is the Baby Lunar Cruiser. It has tires that don’t need air, glass that goes all around and unusual lights. Toyota should have put the MX-1 or MX-2 at the top of their list of ideas. Mid-engine cars from the 1980s and 1990s have beautiful forms that never go out of style. Newer cars, like Hyundai’s N Vision 74, may use this design style uniquely. Seeing that car shows that the class is still popular, and with some modern design touches, cars like the MX-1 and MX-2 could come out in 2023.
