Akio Toyoda wanted an affordable sports car in the lineup, the board of directors agreed 10 years ago and a portion of money was budgeted to complete the project.
Gone are the days of passion projects done on personal time off the clock, corporate favors and verbal deals over steak dinners and beer sealed with handshakes. Hooray capitalism.
This is a good read too:
http://blog.toyota.co.uk/tada-how-to...eated-the-gt86