Toyota Developing New V8 For Upcoming New Sportscars

Toyota-developed Lexus V8 pictured. It appears Toyota is poised to develop a brand new V8 performance mill that will power its next wave of flagship sportscars - Lexus included.

Toyota is not ready to relinquish the combustion engine (ICE) anytime soon. This was evident during last week’s Japan Mobility Show 2025 (JMS 2025) where, besides a raft of new metal, the automaking giant confirmed plans to develop a brand new V8 mill.

Set to be the core of its upcoming flagship halo sportscar that will also see a Lexus-badged twin, Toyota reportedly confirmed said V8 mill will be based off its latest 2.0-litre 4-cyl high-performance mill and will harness forced-induction via twin-turbocharging.

Moreover, the Japanese automaking giant also confirmed plans to develop a “closely related” offshoot from which for its Lexus luxury marque – this will likely power the production version of the Lexus Sport Concept that it revealed not too long ago.

Upcoming new Toyota GT Concept (GR GT concept) shown at Goodwood earlier this year. The new V8 is set to power the eventual road-going version of which.

Primarily though, this new twin-turbo V8 mill with a still unspecified displacement from Toyota will power the brand’s upcoming new GR GT3 halo sportscar mentioned, which was showcased earlier this year in race-ready GT3 concept at the Goodwood annual.

Toyota has teased the engine audibly via an audio snippet prior, and further confirmed that this V8 mill will be presented alongside its upcoming range of 1.5-litre and 2.0-litre 4-cyl performance engines mentioned.

Lexus Sports Concept shown recently during JMS 2025. The new V8 from Toyota will see an offshoot with a different tune destined for the production version of what's touted as the Lexus LFA's successor.

Naturally, a Toyota exec was quoted by one online source in explaining the V8 format was chosen for several key merits, namely its ability to deliver maximum performance through the adoption of a combustion chamber tuned for high revs instead of low-end torque.

The same exec confirmed that this new V8 will share the same base architercture as Toyota’s upcoming new 2.0-litre 4-cyl performance mill mentioned. Based on which, many observers speculate it will pack a 4.0-litre displacement and up to 800 hp at least.

For reference, the upcoming 4-cyl mill mentioned, destined to power the rumoured new GR Celica, reportedly yields up to 400 hp sans any electrified boost. The new V8 is widely expected to harness a degree of electric assist via a self-charging hybrid setup.

Besides the possibility of partial-electrification, Toyota did not confirm if a manual transmission option will be readied for this new V8, but one exec involved in its development was quoted in stating his preference for which.

Separately though, the same exec was quoted by another source expressing a personal preference for having no electrification and the addition of a manual box specifically for Toyota's upcoming new wave of street-legal sportscars.

With or without electrification, the fact Toyota has elected to develop an all-new performance V8 is big news indeed. All we can do now is sit tight and watch how this unfolds over time.