Words: Richard Edwards
Published 9 June 2026
Toyota’s Gazoo Racing skunkworks has taken the humble Camry somewhere nobody asked for but plenty of us secretly wanted, bolting two engines into one car for a combined output of around 520kW.
The build turned up at last weekend’s 24-hour Super Taikyu endurance race in Japan, where local makers traditionally show off the sort of thing they would never put in a showroom. Subaru rolled out a trio of manual-gearbox concepts, but Toyota went further with not one but two Camry oddities.
The headliner wears fat guards, a serious aero kit and a side-exit exhaust. Under the bonnet, where you would normally find the standard four-cylinder, sits the 1.6-litre turbo triple from the GR Yaris, GR Corolla and Lexus LBX Morizo RR. Badged G16E-GTS, it makes 224kW and drives the front wheels.
That alone makes this the most powerful current-generation Camry going around. But Gazoo Racing was not done. Where the back seat used to be, the team has dropped in its brand-new G20E, a 2.0-litre turbo four destined for future GR models. It is good for roughly 298kW, all of it sent to the rear axle.
Add the two together and you get an all-wheel-drive Camry pushing about 520kW. You also get a seven-cylinder Camry, which is a sentence we never expected to write. For the record, the most cylinders you can actually get in a Camry still belongs to the NASCAR version and its V8.
Toyota is staying quiet on the finer details, and there is no chance any of this reaches production. It joins a small club of twin-engine experiments alongside the Volkswagen Scirocco Bi-Motor and the Mercedes A38 AMG.
The second Camry was almost as mad. Built by Toyota Racing in full bōsōzoku style, it runs the new four-cylinder up front only, but makes up for the missing rear engine with a fur-covered dash, a glass shift knob, cigars and, yes, a chandelier. Reports from Japan say it has been converted to rear-wheel drive with a manual gearbox.
Both cars are pure showpieces, which is a shame. A 520kW Camry is exactly the kind of glorious nonsense the world could use more of.
