TOYOTA SPORTIVO COUPE: AUSTRALIAN MOTORSHOW CONCEPT NO. 10

Locally-built concept car offerings from Japanese manufacturers have been pretty thin on the ground over the years, but in 2004, Toyota Australia broke that trend by unveiling a locally designed, developed and built concept in the form of the 'Sportivo Coupe'.

Created with the aim of capturing a younger audience, the concept started with interviewing 14-18 year olds to find out what they were looking for in a car. That data then formed the basis for what was to be built, with 'mobility', 'communication' and 'performance' being key considerations to come out of the research studies.

The 2-door coupe design unveiled at Melbourne was largely the creation of Nick Hogios, a 29-year-old who had already had some design experience with Ford. Hogios' design featured a carbon fibre body over a tubular steel chassis. Elements of Toyota's Camry were visible, but the overall look was solid and sporty, exemplified by chunky wheelarch flares over the 21 inch wheels, dihedral doors (think Toyota's Sera coupe) and large glass area, with additional glass sections in the roof and doors. A total of 380 LEDs were said to have been used to create the head & tail lights and foglamps. Colour scheme was a bold blue and white.

Inside, the packaging featured a driver's seat styled diferently from the passenger seats, push-button start, push-button park brake and flat screen instrument panel. A clever feature of the latter was a speedo needle that adjusted to changes in speed limits to always be in the "12 o'clock" position when that speed limit was reached.

Information/entertainment screens were included for all passengers, and were also portable, so they could be removed from the car to function as laptops. Operating the Sportivo Coupe was done by 'T-Link', a SIM card-style driver's licence that not only unlocked the car, but carried all data to adjust things like seat position, sound system, GPS and engine output to the driver's individual preference. The T-Link system was also conceived as a way of more accurately allocating things like speeding and parking fines to vehicle drivers, rather than owners.

For all its unconventional technology in areas of usability and driver/passenger interaction, the Sportivo Coupe's running gear was conventional Toyota fare in the form of a 2.4lt VVTi turbocharged engine, five speed manual gearbox, Camry suspension and an AWD system lifted from the RAV4.

Despite this, Toyota described the Sportivo Coupe as the first "pure" concept car since Holden's Hurricane of 1969. Pure insofar as it wasn't based on or built around an existing production model, but a total 'clean sheet' design. The entire project went from concept to reality - the Sportivo Coupe was a fully operational vehicle - in 30 weeks at an estimated cost of $1 million. Following its debut in Melbourne, the concept was sent to Japan in August, 2004, to showcase the level of Australian design talent to Toyota Motor Corporation design staff.

"The Toyota Japan audience were mainly designers, rather than engineering people, so they were most interested in the styling and the taste of young Australians who were involved in the design process of this vehicle." said Toyota Style Australia's Paul Beranger of the Japanese presentation.

"There was considerable interest in the vehicle and I think a general surprise at what we have done here in Australia."

After returning to Australia, the Sportivo Coupe toured local shows and events before going back to Toyota Australia for further development.

Do you have any information or comments about this car? Tell us in the comment field below!

JUST Cars' Top Ten Australian Motor Show Concept Cars:

Concepts: Where are they now?

The JUST CARS Top Ten concepts list is by no means definitive and is sure to generate debate and disagreement (we can hear screaming about the Holden Hurricane, Torana GTR-X, etc. already!). Looking at the list, Holden has undoubtedly beenthe major player in local concept cars, and we could have made this Top Ten all Holden quite easily. But GM-H's creations are by no means the only ones to have sat on the dias and spun on turntables at Aussie Motor Shows.

If there's a homegrown concept car that isn't on this list (Chrysler seems conspicuously absent, for example) that you want to share, tell us about it!

We're looking for memories, images and information on other locally-built concepts - not just the ones on the list below, but any others you think are worthy of closer attention. Did you see, shoot, drool over (or maybe even puke over!) somegreat Aussieconcept cars back in the day? If so, drop us a note in the comments tab at the bottom of this page.

2002 Toyota Celica 'Cruising Deck'
1955 Tontala
1975 Ilinga AF2
1979 (?) Ford Cortina 'Tracker' van
1959 Repco Dean
2003 Autotek Raptor
2009 'HAL' Monaro
1965 Toohey '2E' gullwing
2002 Redback Spyder
1977 Recaro Mystere
2003 Toyota X-Runner ute