President of the Toyota Gazoo Racing Division, Tomoya Takahashi, really wants to revive the legendary Toyota Starlet. He even said that this wish was a personal dream that really needed to be realized.
The name Toyota Starlet is indeed very global. In Indonesia, the Toyota Starlet has even been a dream car for young people because of its compact shape and powerful performance.
Not only in Indonesia, the Toyota Starlet is very well received in several other countries such as Australia, Japan and the European and Southeast Asian regions.
“In the past, I often drove the car on snowy roads and small artificial circuits in my village in Hokkaido,” said Tomoya Takahashi.
He even said that his desire to join Toyota started with that car. At that time he really thought the Toyota Starlet was a car that was very fun to drive.
It’s just that at that time their rival Honda actually made a car that was almost the same, namely the First Generation Honda Civic Type R. The designs of the two cars are indeed slightly similar, namely that both are compact round hatchbacks.
“From there I wanted to work for Toyota so I could make a car that could beat the Honda Civic Type R,” said Tomoya Takahashi.
He said the desire to revive the Toyota Starlet arose when he heard that the new Toyota Motor Corp. President Koji Sato was planning to bring back legendary old Toyota cars. At that time Koji Sato wanted to make the latest version of the Toyota Celica.
“If Koji Sato wants to resurrect the Celica, my personal dream is to put aside my position as GR President, the car that will be resurrected is the Toyota Starlet,” he hoped.
He further said that this dream does not mean that Toyota has an official plan to revive the Toyota Starlet. It’s just that if there is a choice, according to Tomoya Takahashi, the Toyota Starlet is a car that he really wants to present again.
The Drive site mentions that this desire is indeed a little difficult. The reason is that currently Toyota already has a hatchback car that is in demand, namely the Toyota Yaris.
Since its launch in 1999, until now there have been 10 million Toyota Yaris on the road. Even in 2020, the Toyota GR Division led by Tomoya Takahashi made the Toyota GR Yaris which is currently also being sold in Indonesia.
