2023-10-06 15:46:05
CALTY Design Research, the U.S. affiliate of Toyota’s global design network, celebrates five decades of groundbreaking design and innovation. The West Coast’s first major automotive design studio, CALTY created everything from the 1978 Toyota Celica to the 2024 Toyota Tacoma, and countless concepts and production vehicles in between.
Today the future is glimpsed with the surprise reveal of the Toyota Baby Lunar Cruiser (BLC) concept. Built to conquer rugged terrain on Earth and beyond, the BLC incorporates a unique combination of adaptive technology and design elements inherited from the original FJ40 Land Cruiser.
The BLC is the latest in a long line of thought-provoking concepts dreamed up by the CALTY design team. Some of those concepts, like an early proposal for the FJ40 and the MX-2 sports car concept, never made it beyond the walls of the design studio, but are being shared today for the first time.
Dreaming in California
Established in 1973 in El Segundo, California, CALTY was the vision of Dr. Shoichiro Toyoda and Eiji Toyoda. The new studio was deliberately kept quiet, allowing it to develop a unique identity and provide fresh, creative inspiration to Toyota’s global design headquarters in Japan.
“California was a youthful, vibrant epicenter of fresh ideas, cool car culture and the glamorous film industry that inspired CALTY to create innovative designs and set new trends,” said Kevin Hunter, president of CALTY Design Research.
When CALTY decided to expand and relocate, it didn’t get far, moving up the coast to Newport Beach in 1978. That same year, CALTY’s first production car design, the second-generation Celica, became a worldwide success and the designers haven’t looked back since.
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