Look carefully at this new, and very orange, Century coupe and you'll notice one important thing that's missing.
What's that?
A Toyota badge. You see, while the Century - a big luxury saloon, equipped with variously V8, V12 and V8 hybrid power - has long been the pinnacle of the Toyota lineup, and a discreet, subtle Japanese alternative to the likes of a Mercedes S-Class for the discerning Tokyo business magnate, Toyota now plans to relaunch Century as its own brand, complete with its unique phoenix logo.
What's powering this coupe, then?
We don't know just yet, as Toyota is still being quite coy about details, but a hybrid V8 similar to that used by the current Century saloon would be a logical guess.
More important is the style, which takes the blocky double-stacked headlight look of the Century SUV - launched in 2023 - and slims it down into a chunky coupe shape.
Looks pretty cool...
Wait until you see the inside. Behind doors that cantilever open and sit parallel to the bodywork as they do, there's a three-seat cabin, with the driver closed off from the passengers by a cocoon made of both hand-finished wood and what appear to be laser lights stretching from the centre console to the ceiling.
The idea is that you can either selfishly drive yourself, while ignoring your passengers, or you can be the passenger and sit back and enjoy being wafted about.
I presume there's a high tech count?
Certainly is. Aside from the laser partition, there's a yoke-style steering wheel which indicates a fully active steer-by-wire system underneath, while there's an intriguing mixture of digital and analogue controls and readouts.
For this show car, the cabin layout is unusual, with a single driver's seat up front (in right-hand-drive, of course...) while in the back there's a luxurious passenger seat on the left, with almost endless legroom, with another rear seat to the right which is partly taken up with cargo-carrying. Presumably, the production version will have a more conventional four-seat layout.
This is going into production then?
Oh yes, Toyota wants to specifically challenge the likes of Rolls-Royce and Bentley with the Century brand, creating a super-luxury top layer to the group while Lexus gets on with the task of beating BMW and Mercedes.
It's not yet known if Century will be sold outside of Japan, but that does seem likely as Toyota's chairman, Akio Toyoda, said at the car's unveiling at the Tokyo motor show: "Century is not just another brand within Toyota Motor Corporation. We want to cultivate it as a brand that brings the spirit of Japan - the pride of Japan - out into the world. The next Century begins with us.”