Remember those TRD Corolla coupés from the '80s? Miss them? If so, you can rejoice at the news that TRD is officially coming back to South Africa.
Toyota will unleash the Auris TRD, which has just been revealed at the Johannesburg International Motor Show, from November in limited numbers.
So much more than just a fancy external tart-up, the Auris TRD comes with a bolt-on supercharging kit, which sees the outputs of its 1.6-litre petrol engine rising to 133kW at 6400rpm and 202Nm at 5200rpm. That gets laid down through a six-speed manual gearbox driving the front wheels, with a TRD Sportivo suspension kit keeping things in line.
Toyota didn't go into much detail on the hot hatch, but a source that won't be named did hint that the company was hoping to price it below the R300 000 mark.
That would make sense, given that it's still not as powerful as the Golf GTI and company. At most, it can compete with the Opel Astra 1.6T in performance terms, although the styling makeover does give the Toyota more street cred.
To that end, the Auris TRD is kitted out with 17-inch alloy wheels and an aero body kit with front and rear skirting.
However, not much has been done to perk up the interior and there is some evidence of cost cutting with manual air conditioning instead of climate control - although there is a nice six-speaker CD/USB/Bluetooth sound system and leather seats.
More detail will be divulged closer to the release date, so watch this space.