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TWENTY-FOUR EYES
24 views of the Toyota FT-1

This article is from our archives and has not been updated and integrated with our "new" site yet... Even so, it's still awesome - so keep reading!

Published on Wed, Jan 15, 2014

By: The LACar Editorial Staff

Calty Design President Kevin Hunter with the 12-member FT-1 design team (Joe Polimeni)

Our report on the Detroit show, otherwise known as the North American International Auto Show, looms. In the meantime, we want to showcase 24 perspectives on the new Toyota FT-1 concept that just debuted. If you think Toyota is all about conservative styling, be prepared to have your notions blown away. Some are calling this a three-handkerchief design: arguable the best design to come out of Toyota since the 1967 2000GT and one to bring tears to your eyes.

The FT-1 was devised by Calty Design Research as a virtual car for the Sony PlayStation Gran Turismo game environment, but Toyota is now saying that the FT-1 hints at a particular product to come (can we say “Supra”?, as well as serving as a benchmark for the design of future Toyota vehicles.

Toyota is calling this “function-sculpting” design—a language that translates to curved, muscular, expressive body forms that appear to be shaped by the wind. This may mean that we’ll be seeing future Toyotas that are more curvaceous and less angular. The FT-1 project evidently started nearly two years ago by Toyota’s Calty design team in California. “The FT-1 is a dream-project for a designer and car enthusiast like myself,” said Alex Shen, Calty’s Studio Chief Designer. “Our team was heavily influenced by Toyota’s sports car past, especially Celica and Supra, and we sought to capture some of that history. It is an aggressive, track-focused sports car concept with a presence that has been amplified for shock and awe.” For 2014, Calty is celebrating its 40th year of operation.

“Sports cars represent the ultimate driving expression in its purest form. As car enthusiasts ourselves, this is the kind of project we dream about working on,” said Calty Design Research president Kevin Hunter. “Beyond its obvious five-alarm visual impact, FT-1 is symbolic of a new chapter for Toyota Global Design. This provocative concept truly captures the passion, excitement, and energy of the Toyota we are evolving into and embodies elements of the emotion and performance that Toyota will imprint upon future production designs.”