Toyota Won't Turn TMG into an AMG Fighter

There was a time when Toyota was quite serious about its Toyota Motorsport GmbH (TMG). The initial plan was to make it a solid competitor to the likes of Mercedes' AMG. The business model and idea sounded fantastic. However, things don't always pan out as planned. According to a new report coming from Australian publication Motoring,Toyota's plan to turn TMG into a Japanese AMGhas been dropped, at least for now.

The news came during a recent visit to TMG near Cologne, Germany when operations director Rob Leupen went into detail regarding a very different role for the brand in the near future. "I don't think you will find in the next four or five years a TMG car in any dealership," Leupen stated. What will happen, instead, is that TMG will provide "ongoing" vehicle development assistance to Toyota. "We are not just on performance, we go everywhere," Leupen added. In other words, this news confirms what we've long suspected: that aproduction version of that kick ass TMG Sports 650, based on the Lexus LS, won't enter production.