TMG is the future of Toyota tuning

Toyota is getting serious about building performance versions of its current models. The manufacturer hopes to turn Toyota Motorsport GmbH, the crew behind the Toyota Le Mans effort and the automaker's now defunct Formula One team, into a factory-backed tuner. TMG currently handles almost everything motorsport related for Toyota with the exception of engine building, and the group is currently hard at work on what could develop into a World Rally Championship entry in the near future.

TMG is shooting for a WRC debut in 2014 with a turbocharged 1.6-liter Yaris, and buyers will be able to purchase an FIA version of the model for around €25,000. According to Yoshiaki Kinoshita, president of TMG, the organization will also prepare high-performance versions of Lexus vehicles. That helps explain the Lexus LS460 TMG Edition our photographers spotted at the Nürburgring last year. When asked about the LS460, Kinoshita said every part of the vehicle had been substantially reworked by his team, including the engine, suspension and bodywork. The model could be confirmed for production in as little as six to nine months.