Plans for Toyota-Badged Performance and Convertible FR-S Scrapped

By Marcus Slater - July 31, 2013

Listen up FR-S fans, you might want to take a seat for this one. According to Automotive News, Toyota has no plans on building a convertible version of the FR-S. It gets worse. They also have decided against building a turbo/supercharger/fast version of the FR-S as well. They’ve been “deemed too expensive for it’s limited volume.” Consider your dreams of a TRD FR-S that’s actually fast, thoroughly crushed.

Their refusal to build a convertible is strange considering their main competition is a little roadster called the Miata. Keeping a hard-top affords the FR-S some bonuses the Miata doesn’t, like better chassis characteristics. Toyota clearly considered the car, but I guess it they just couldn’t justify the cost to put it into production.

What’s more upsetting is that they’re not going to be releasing a performance edition of the car. While the article goes on to say that Toyota is building a new sports car with the help of BMW (Mark V Supra?!), that’s years away. The lack of power is the one stopping point that keeps the FR-S out of the league of high performance cars. It’s a shame we won’t be getting one from Toyota due to cost.

If you’re the type to hang on to the last possible sliver of hope… Technically, the article says “A Toyota-badged convertible or turbo-charged performance version of the Scion FR-S coupe was under consideration, but was deemed too expensive for its limited volumes.” Scion is a different badge. So hold on to hope you starry eyed dreamers.