Tetsuya Tada, the chief engineer on the all-new Toyota GR Supra, is the automaker's biggest advocate for reviving the fabled three-model "three brothers" sports car lineup. With the GR Supra newly on the market and the 86 rumored to be due for refresh or replacement in the next few years, all eyes are on the mysterious third and undecided entry. According to a recent interview with Australia's Go Auto, Tada hinted that the all-new sports car could be mid-engined.

"Fortunately, I have made two FR [front-engine, rear-wheel-drive] sports cars already," he said in reference to the 86 and GR Supra to Go Auto. "I was really lucky to make two. But a third sports car? Mid-ship, maybe."

Mid-ship is common slang for the mid-engined layout in Japan, referring to how the engine is mounted amidships; inside the wheelbase. The last road-going Toyota to use this layout was the MR2, historically a member of the "three brothers" trifecta, which in its prime included the Celica, MR2, and Supra. Tada has previously stated that the third member of its sports car triumvirate won't undercut the already Celica-esque 86, suggesting that Toyota's next sports car could be more MR2-like in nature, but Tada couldn't guarantee that the nameplate itself would return for this model.

Tada also expressed a desire to keep the development of this sports car in-house if possible, unlike Toyota's two current sporting models, as the 86 was developed jointly with Subaru and the GR Supra with BMW.

"It's much less stress if I can make it with just Toyota and not with another company," Tada continued. He warned, however, that an exclusively Toyota-developed, small-market sports car could fall short of lofty expectations due to technological constraints, using smartphones as an analogy.

"It's not just sports cars. If you make something in-house, you can't actually make anything exciting. For instance, smartphones. For every company, the best technology [from other companies] is integrated in there and that's the excitement. It's the same for cars. If you want to make something exciting and suited to each era, you have to find which company has the best technology and generate new value."