Story by John LeBlanc
DETROIT – Toyota is sticking to its guns that its FT-1 concept, arguably the “hit” of the 2014 Detroit auto show, is just that — a concept. Sporting design echoes from former Toyota sports cars from the 1960s’ 2000GT to the Supra of the 1990s to today’s Scion FR-S, it’s hard not to think that the FT-1 (which officially stands for “Future Toyota”) won’t eventually influence the joint sports car that the Japanese automaker is developing with Germany’s BMW.
To find out more about the genesis of the FT-1’s design, Driving.ca sat down with the two men most responsible for the concept’s creation. Alex Shen (fifth from the right above) is the Studio Chief at Toyota’s Calty Design Research centre in Newport Beach, California, while Bill Chergosky (fourth from the right) is Calty’s manager of interior design.
JOHN LEBLANC: You mentioned that the FT-1 was inspired by sports cars from Toyota’s past. Are there any specific design details on the concept our readers would pick out?
ALEX SHEN: I think you get a feeling of the 2000GT, especially in the cabin, the wraparound windshield and side window opening, which was a conscious effort. In terms of the proportion and the sense of muscularity, you can see a lot of Mark IV Supra too. There’s also a bit of FR-S in the nose as well. All those attributes we wanted to introduce to the design as well as creating something new. We just didn’t want to put elements on the vehicle and then “call it a day.”
JL: Did you change your normal deign process with the FT-1?
AS: The only thing that went beyond the normal was that we wanted to create a visceral experience when we pitched this car to senior management. It is a sports car. So we felt that it was necessary to show what it feels like to drive the car. Typically we have a static model. But our partnership with the makers of
Gran Turismo at Polyphony allowed us to “build” then “drive” the FT-1 virtually. We were able to see what the car felt like to drive and test out the new head-up display. We know Akio-san (Akio Toyoda, Toyota’s CEO) is a car guy, and we know he has experience with Gran Turismo. (Rumours are the president has a setup in his office.)
JL: Let’s talk about the FT-1’s head-up display, or HUD, and how it influenced the interior.
BILL CHERGOSKY: The main theme was to blend the old — as in the 2000GT — with the new. We did a lot of research driving other high performance cars. And out of that research we got the idea of “driving in the zone.” When you’re driving at speed, everyone asks you how fast you are going. But I have no idea. I never look at the meters. I can see my hands and the road ahead — that’s it. So we made the decision to reinvent the meters and take them out of the dash, bring them above the wheel and make them the primary focus. The result ended up being very authentic, not just some Hollywood prop.
JL: How boundless was your creativity on this project?
AS: That was the unique part of this project: we were given free reign to design a sports car. However, to be “authentic”, there has to be some sense of reality. When car guys look at this, they recognize what it is. We’re not using technology 30 years out, it’s from today, but done in a very fresh new way.
JL: Any challenges along the way?
AS: The challenge was producing an authentic sports car from a designer’s perspective. While Toyota’s LeMans sports car was designed and built by engineers, the FT-1 was designed by designers. So we didn’t have a lot of engineering involvement; that’s why we ended up doing a lot of research ourselves. That meant we created the whole package, where the seats went, the wheelbase. Typically we would be handed some basic package, but this one we started with a white sheet of paper.
BC: For the interior, we may not be able to afford to have carbon fibre pieces everywhere. But from a technology standpoint and from its proportions, the interior is not an impossibility. That doesn’t mean it’s going to happen.
JL: So which one of you has the better lap time driving the “virtual” FT-1?
BC: [Laughs] Clearly Alex. He’s the
Gran Turismo guy.
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Story by John LeBlanc
DETROIT – Toyota is sticking to its guns that its FT-1 concept, arguably the “hit” of the 2014 Detroit auto show, is just that — a concept. Sporting design echoes from former Toyota sports cars from the 1960s’ 2000GT to the Supra of the 1990s to today’s Scion FR-S, it’s hard not to think that the FT-1 (which officially stands for “Future Toyota”) won’t eventually influence the joint sports car that the Japanese automaker is developing with Germany’s BMW.
To find out more about the genesis of the FT-1’s design, Driving.ca sat down with the two men most responsible for the concept’s creation. Alex Shen (fifth from the right above) is the Studio Chief at Toyota’s Calty Design Research centre in Newport Beach, California, while Bill Chergosky (fourth from the right) is Calty’s manager of interior design.
