SWIFTLY MOVING ON

Forget all those wild rumours about the forthcoming reborn Toyota Supra. Here’s the real tuner-freak headline. Oh, okay, we’re being a bit sarcastic because, well . . . if there was a model from Toyota’s extensive line-up of cars you’d expect to be given the SEMA Show custom treatment, the C-HR doesn’t exactly leap to top of mind.

Maybe it’s just one of those “give them what they least expect” deals, but although it’s a seemingly popular option for the over-60s who’ve tired of their brightly coloured Suzuki Swifts, the C-HR doesn’t seem like a candidate for loads more power.

The Mazda CX-3/Honda HR-V rival received a lukewarm reaction when it launched this year, enlivened only by pleasing looks (in the right spec) and Toyota’s more-is-more approach to colours and accessories. The car’s 85kW 1.2-litre petrol turbo promises fizz but delivers a raspberry. So, maybe an injection of horsepower-themed excitement is what Toyota had in mind with the — to give it its full name — C-HR R-Tuned it showed off at the SEMA custom show in Las Vegas last week. The R-Tuned example — with roll-cage, enormous rear wing, track tyres, race-tuned suspension and a large front splitter — features a 2.4-litre RAV4 engine perked up by a Garrett turbo running a purported 23psi of boost. The obvious highlights aside, there are a couple of quirks: the SEMA car has a five-speed (manual) gearbox and

they’ve used a frontwheel drive example of a C-HR to build this behemoth on, rather than an all-wheel drive example.

Also, with a raised ride-height being one of the key attributes of your common or garden variety crossover vehicle, the fact that Toyota’s race boffins have lowered this one, isn’t lost on us.