Toyota Sportivo Coupe Concept

Toyota has set about tackling a problem that riles many drivers on today's roads - speed enforcement.

With the unveiling of the Sportivo Coupe, a concept car that demonstrates new styling, interior dynamics and high tech approaches to road safety, Toyota is addressing a sensitive issue in a pragmatic fashion.

The Toyota Sportivo Coupe features an innovative speed zone reconfigurative speedometer that would make it easier to keep the car within the speed limit at all times, despite it having a powerful 180kW turbocharged engine.

With regulators across the country, and indeed across the globe, increasing their focus on speed surveillance, it has become increasingly important for drivers to be aware of their exact speed and of local speed limits – especially with more variable speed limit areas being introduced.

Like most great designs, the self-adjusting speedo is quite simple in concept.

At all times the prevailing speed limit is located at the 12 o'clock position on the dial – or top dead centre.

At the same time, the calibration of the speedo changes as the car approaches the speed limit so that the graduations are more widely spaced and therefore more accurate.

The driver requires only a quick glance to see if he or she is driving under or over the limit, and an increasing band of red also alerts the driver when exceeding the speed limit.

Before such a breakthrough concept can be introduced to the real world, governments and road authorities would need to introduce transponders that would send out the appropriate signal for cars to receive.

But along with such external transmitters, some argue that they could also be installed in the cars themselves and be used to monitor drivers at all times, likening it to an invasion of privacy.

"It wouldn't have to happen overnight," Toyota Australia's design manager Paul Beranger said.

"For example, phase one could be the introduction of transponders on all electronic signs on roads where the speed limit changes through electronic means.

"It could operate on freeways where you go from an 80 zone to a 100 zone, then progressively extend throughout the road network. Toyota is demonstrating with this car that the technology is available to put the system into a car and to read external information through the use of telematics."

As far as the concept car's design goes, its creation included input from 14 to 18 year-olds, providing a unique insight into the personal mobility priorities of the next generation of car buyers.

"We didn't just want to do a dressed-up Camry, but rather something that would appeal to 14 to 18 year-olds and their unique lifestyle," explained Paul Beranger.

"They are our next generation of car drivers and we therefore believe there is an opportunity for them to champion new technology and be completely comfortable with its introduction over the next five to 10 years."

The Toyota Sportivo Coupe went from concept to reality in under 30 weeks and presents new concepts for how we will use cars in the future and challenges century-old technology such as metal number plates.

"Toyota is very excited about this concept car and the ideas it contains," Toyota Australia executive director sales and marketing Dave Buttner said while launching the car at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre.

"We wanted to develop a vehicle that was based on the locally manufactured Camry, but which focused more on younger people. And we wanted to display to the world the capabilities of our local Toyota designers and engineers, as well as local suppliers, and to grow their expertise."

Groups of teenagers in Melbourne and Sydney attended market research clinics to provide the designers with an insight into the key influences in their lives.

The conventional licence plate is replaced on Sportivo coupe with the licensed driver's I.D, the person responsible for use of the vehicle. This would theoretically allow governments and regulatory bodies the opportunity to deal directly with the person responsible for the operation of the vehicle regarding speeding fines, toll charges and even parking fines - rather than the owner.

The Sportivo Coupe was created by a young but experienced design team at Toyota Style Australia, headed by 29 year-old Nick Hogios, who worked on the award-winning BA Falcon before moving to Toyota.

Hogios and the team designed the eye-catching coupe with extensive use of glass panels and unusual dihedral doors that hinge upwards instead of outwards. The vehicle was designed entirely by CAD (Computer Aided Design) and went straight from CAD to prototype tooling, bypassing industry-standard clay models.

The Sportivo Coupe concept is based on the same Toyota underpinnings as the Camry, but has one significant difference to the locally built Camry platform - all-wheel drive.

Australian engineers replaced all the mechanical components to accommodate a manual gearbox and most of the drivetrain is adapted from the Toyota RAV4, including the five-speed gearbox, differential and driveshafts.

Powering the Sportivo Coupe is a forced induction version of the 2.4-litre [2AZ-FE] engine introduced with the Australian-built Camry that was launched in 2002. Melbourne-based Automotive Performance Solutions installed a Garrett GT25 turbocharger that features the latest water-cooled technology and roller bearings for faster "spool up" response and improved durability.

As such, power output has increased by 60 percent from 112kW to 180kW @ 5500rpm. Torque is 305Nm @ 4500rpm, an increase of 55 per cent over the standard engine's 218Nm.

A flat torque curve provides strong response throughout the rev range, with 90 per cent of peak torque available from 2500 to 6000rpm. A custom fabricated exhaust manifold leads into a free-flow performance exhaust with dual outlets.

PBR International, which makes the brakes for high-performance cars around the world such as the Chevrolet Corvette, produced massive 380mm diameter ventilated and cross drilled rotors and six-piston calipers for the front and 355mm rotors and four-piston calipers for the rear.

The suspension is fully independent all round, with sports dampers and upgraded coil springs fitted at the front and rear. The six-spoke wheels were designed at Toyota Style Australia by Robert Young and Malcolm Baulch and cast in Adelaide under the watchful eye of alloy wheel guru Kevin Drage.

Measuring 21-inches at the front and rear, they feature blue central ‘spiders’ that fit over the hubs and match the car’s blue glass treatment. Dunlop Australia utilised its global resources to find the most suitable high performance tyres available, super-low profile SP Sport 9000 tyres made in Germany.

Furthermore, an electronic park brake was developed by PBR to replace a manual cable-operated item. "This car is all about breaking the mould for Toyota Australia," project manager Rob Allen said.

"We felt that, if we were going to look at younger people, we would focus on a group that was yet to emerge as car owners, but who would be influential in the future."