It's only a concept, but the Toyota FT-1 concept was just the kind of sports car that sets pulses aflutter at the North American International Auto Show here.

"This is the symbol of Toyota's design future," said Kevin Hunter, head of Toyota's California design studio where the FT was designed. FT stands for Future Toyota.

The car similarities to the look of the Scion FR-S, the smaller sports car that Toyota developed for its youth-oriented line with Subaru, which sells it as the BRZ.

But FT-1 takes it to another level with show-car design features, such a deep, sculpted scoops routing air to the rear wheels and out the back and a spoiler wing that raises high above the rear. and a serious sports car interior and head-up display.

Toyota made a point of stressing that the car extends Toyota sports car heritage: Most recently the Supra, no longer made, that was one of Toyota's cult favorites.

Is this a model for the much-rumored new Supra. Like the Furia concept that Toyota unveiled at this show last year, the FT-1 isn't a slam dunk for production.

Reaction to it is going to be gauged and only then will a decision be made whether anything like it goes to production. For now, the goal was, as Hunter put it, to "create a sexy halo car" as a concept.

But Hunter said the car does demonstrates that Toyota is committed to being bolder in its car creations. "Toyota's design efforts are less reliant on consensus now," he says.

FT-1 took two years to create as a "dream mission," Alex Shen, chief designer for the FT-1. "It gets your heart racing just to look at it."

The Toyota FT-1 concept is a pure performance, track-focused sports car model created by CALTY Design Research, Toyota's North American Design branch. The FT-1 concept is a symbol that captures elements of the emotion and energy we can expect to see in future Toyota vehicles designs. Its design is heavily influenced by Toyota's long sports car tradition that includes vehicles such as 2000GT, Celica, Supra and most recently, FT-86 (Scion F-RS).