Toyota Boss Confirms Century GRMN As Performance-Oriented Luxury SUV

When Toyota unveiled the Century SUV as a highly customizable chauffeur-driven vehicle, the automaker's global design boss, Simon Humphries, appeared to call a sportier version of the Century on the stage of the global reveal the Century GRMN. When speaking of the customization options, showing off the 'sliding' rear doors (they appear to open on a hinge rather than a rail) on the sportier model, he claimed that "the opportunities are only limited by your imagination..." after which he boldly proclaimed, "If you want to drive the vehicle yourself at the weekend, the GRMN will certainly not disappoint... The possibilities...are endless and open to discussion..."

While this was initially dismissed by us as a regular GR Sport trim (akin to AMG Line and other styling packages), it seems this variant will actually wear the GRMN badge.

The problem with this? GRMN stands for Gazoo Racing "Meister of the Nurburgring," which is precisely the opposite of what the Century's demographic is looking for.

GRMN sits above the GR lineup, which currently offers the likes of the GR Supra and GR Corolla in North America. Thus far, there have been very few GRMN models, and the next one rumored to be in the pipeline is an M3-powered Supra GRMN.

Sadly, we don't think the Century GRMN will actually be a hardcore track-rated variant, and will likely stick with the standard model's plug-in hybrid 3.5-liter turbo V6 with 406 horsepower and a circa-40-mile electric driving range.

Instead, we suspect Toyota will let buyers spec a GRMN version with various sporty accouterments per their desires. The show car, featured carbon fiber bits, including a new front splitter, side skirts, and a rear diffuser. A GR badge in black and silver was also embedded on the top right portion of the grille. A set of blacked-out wheels with red brake calipers rounded out the look.

This is not the first time the Century nameplate used a GRMN badge. The sedan counterpart also received the GRMN treatment, with one example brought to the 2019 Tokyo Auto Salon. We'd put money on the fact that car never saw a race track.

So what's the point?

Quite simply, customization. The Century has historically been considered the Rolls-Royce of Japan, where well-heeled buyers would rather buy the Toyota than anything from England. Whereas Rolls buyers will opt for a Coachbuild like the Droptail, Century buyers might choose a convertible - something Toyota also teased at the premiere - or a sportier GRMN variant.

So no, this doesn't mean there's a Nurburgring-crushing Century SUV on the way. But it does mean Toyota is willing to build you any Century you want, provided you write a blank check for it. Considering the standard Century SUV starts at $170,000, we don't want to know what these custom versions would cost.