“Camry GT-S Concept”: SEMA Build Episode 1 | Toyota
In true Toyota Spirit, we’re
always looking for ways to amplify Toyota’s motorsports capabilities, and some of that’s done through road cars, and we wanted to showcase what a fun to drive, performance oriented Camry could be. We’re always excited to be
involved in SEMA programs, but this one, considering that this
studio did the Camry that is out today, being able to then take that
design that we had developed and then bring it to the
next level is super exciting. Every time we start one of these vehicles, we seem to be under the gun. With X-Runner, you know, we shove the Tundra engine in and
modified the suspension greatly, unique custom wheels. With Rox, we took it way up, cut half the vehicle away, unique open doors. Now this year with Camry, we wanted to make it an exciting different expression than
what we’ve done in the past. So something a bit more
possibly production feasible to be an exciting next evolution of Camry. When we began some style
exploration for this concept, we had numerous ideas and ultimately we decided to make it as aggressive as possible. You know, we have a lot more
performance oriented looking fascia that carries on through the
rockers and into the rear. The stance of the vehicle, getting
the wheels and tires sized properly and all the lower elements that really kind of create a a low center of gravity
to the image of the vehicle. What I feel is one of the more
transformative parts of the car is even some of the painting. The two-tone hood really
exemplifies the hammerhead and I think these things all in
conjunction makes something really cool. Additionally, we developed an exciting color, a color that that shifts from
almost red to bright yellow, you know, with the foundation being orange. It was a tremendous challenge
to get this color dialed in and to get it looking appropriate
from all views and keep it exciting. I mean, Camry has been a
lot of things in its life. Orange isn’t one of them, but it does
speak to that performance feeling. The color is phenomenal. It’s not just orange. It’s this really crazy
pearlescent multi-stage paint. It’s beautiful. And we just wanted to show that Camry could be more. And part of that is in color as well. And that speaks to that fun
to drive performance feeling. I mean, you find colors like this on supercars, not usually on sedans. And we thought that really helped put
an exclamation point on this concept. We’re here in Saline, Michigan
at the PD facility at TMNA R&D assembling the Camry GT-S. So putting this vehicle together,
this is an early production vehicle. It’s essentially a prototype vehicle. The vehicle will function as a production Camry. There are about 14 total aerodynamic
components that were designed by Calty and then built between Calty
and the AD lab that were added between the front bumper cover, the rear
bumper cover, and then the deck lid itself. The front bumper corner has
some very expressive movements. And we work to exaggerate that and utilize the larger openings for added
cooling and lower performance aspects to generate downforce and create
more of an exciting image. On the rear bumper, there’s
a three-piece splitter guard. There are two outer trim pieces that
add to kind of the overall appearance. And then on the deck lid, there’s a custom
spoiler that was added to the vehicle. We have a little bit of gap
with our new styling pieces. So, we try to fill up right
now before we lift up the car to work on the tires, wheels, and the suspension. We’ll do an orange ring, orange Toyota letters. We’ll have a hint of orange here, but then we’re
going to have a a big orange caliper behind it. So, it’ll really kind of add
a nice touch to the view. So, with this new color that
we used for the Camry GTS, there were inherent challenges. One, we can’t paint multiple
pieces off of the vehicle separated because with that, the different pressures,
the amount of time that you spend per part result in different
colors for each component. So, with that, we have to paint essentially
the entire vehicle as one vehicle to have a harmonious color
around the entire vehicle. So, we’ve only got a few days
left to complete the vehicle. We’ve got a few parts left to paint.
We’ve got to assemble those parts. We’ve got to get the vehicle
through final inspection, windows tinted, and ship the vehicle
to SEMA to arrive for the show. I think when people walk up to this, they’re going to be surprised by the front end. It’s hyper aggressive. I think they’re going to be really excited
by the color because it’s so vibrant and the way it shifts from yellow to the
dark shadowed oranges is really exciting and it’s really set off nicely
against the gloss black. Everything just pops. Being at SEMA, seeing the
cars or seeing the response is always important and exciting for
us as designers, as a company as well. And having a car like the GT-S Camry at SEMA will give us the ability to potentially see what the community, you know,
the automotive community feels about a performance oriented Camry. You know, one that really pushes the envelope, gets a bit higher than we’ve shown. And it’s really exciting to see
what that response could be.
The CALTY Design and R&D teams unite to reimagine Toyota’s best-selling sedan with the GT-S Concept, transforming a hybrid Camry into a grounded, yet aggressively styled sport machine. Custom aerodynamics, a lowered stance, and targeted performance upgrades—finished in striking Inferno Flare paint—deliver an attainable vision of the Camry’s future, one that drivers can easily imagine in their own garage.
00:00 What a performance-oriented Camry could be
00:38 Using the past to inform the future
01:09 Style Explorations: Performance-oriented
01:46 Elevating the color: Camry can be more
02:39 Assembling the Camry GT-S
03:29 Custom additions & overcoming obstacles
04:05 What are the challenges with this new Camry color?
04:39 Crunch time to ship to SEMA
05:17 Anticipating the response to the new Camry GT-S
Check out what’s new and watch more Toyota SEMA videos:
▶Latest videos from Toyota: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpnVUHsQlSo&list=PLsOvRYzJPCwVPnQZg9qWBpGP8oHLM1aT_
▶More Toyota SEMA Show videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wj_lldj0zI4&list=PLsOvRYzJPCwUOCtl_IzAzuB063QdnmDPS
▶Watch the “bZ Time Attack Concept”: SEMA Build Episode 1 | Toyota: https://youtu.be/uY2UEdA59Jk
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