Used to be Toyota had some seriously sexy sports cars, models such as the Supra, the Celica and the dinky little MR2; going back further, the 2000GT was sufficiently sexy to star in a James Bond movie.
But the company's recall horrors, the global financial crisis and the effort to be No.1 - with absolutely every tenet of good business subordinated to sales volume - has seen all these exciting, low-volume models fall by the wayside.
Luckily for fans of the brand, there are still petrolheads at Toyota who recognise that exciting, muscular cars are not only fun to build, and fun to drive, they're good business too, because their 'halo' effect rubs off on more conventional models.
And one of them is company CEO Akio Toyoda, a part-time racing driver and full-time sports-car fanatic.
So now we have the Lexus LF-A - a very civilised, very expensive hooligan tool indeed - and the totally gorgeous 86, soon to be welcomed to our shores.
But it's also a poorly kept secret that parked in the Toyota skunk works there's a slinky concept called the FT-HS, which was first seen at the 2007 Detroit show but disappeared abruptly when the financial crisis hit 18 months later.
The FT-HS concept was linked to an outrageous proposal for a hybrid sports coupe that would go like a Porsche - but with politically correct 'green' credentials - as a worthy successor to the Supra, which is still a cult car in Japan.
And a development mule for that project - the MRS, built by in-house tuning division Gazoo - not only exists, but has also been tested, very quietly, at Fuji Speedway.
That much we know.
Rumours flying around the cybergarage say the MRS will eventually have a mid-mounted, 3.5-litre V6 driving the rear wheels through a CVT transmission, with Mitsubishi Miev-style 'platter' electric motors in the front wheels, together producing more than 300kW, which would give the Hybrid Sports coupé some serious street cred, especially if the guys at Gazoo have a hand in its development.
Apparently Akio Toyoda is keen to see the car in showrooms by the end of 2015, but first he'll have to convince the notoriously conservative corporate bean-counters at Toyota City. As soon as we know more, so will you.