1957 to 2009 This document provides an overview of Toyota’s historic and current motor sport activities and is updated twice yearly

In the course of more than 50 years, Toyota has shown itself to be one of the most passionate car manufacturers in motor sport.

It was some years after these modest first steps in competition that Toyota embraced motor sport more fully. In 1963 the newly-opened Suzuka Circuit hosted the first Japanese Grand Prix, a race not for single-seater formula cars, as in Europe, but for sports saloons. Toyota Crown, Corona and Publica models were entered by private teams, but Toyota provided active support, recognising early on that racing was a good arena for showing off its engineering prowess. Its efforts proved successful straight away, with Toyota cars dominating all three classes in the event, most notably with the Publica filling the top seven places and the Corona the top three in their respective classes.

The road-going Sports 800 was launched alongside the 2000GT at the 1965 Tokyo Motor Show, having been developed from the Publica saloon. Toyota’s first sports car, it featured a neat, aerodynamic two-seat body with a detachable roof panel. At the front, the recessed lamps with chrome surrounds echoed the styling of its more powerful stablemate.

The 2000GT was the car which effectively launched Toyota’s circuit racing history. It made its debut at the Japanese Grand Prix at the Fuji circuit in 1966 and immediately demonstrated its potential against more powerful competition, taking third place

Unveiled at the previous Tokyo Motor Show, the 2000GT was Toyota’s bold bid to enter the global sports car market, an ambition that cold be usefully supported by high profile success on the race track. Two cars were modified to Group 6 specification for the 1966 Japanese Grand Prix at Fuji – the first to admit prototype race cars. One car retired due to a simple technical problem, while the other claimed a third place against fully race-designed machines such as the Prince R380 and Porsche Carrera 6.
One month later, Toyota took first and second place in the Suzuka 1000km race, giving Toyota the encouragement it needed to press on with its motor sport programme. Three further victories were claimed during the 1967 Japanese season.
Success in the USA was crucial for the 2000GT and Toyota decided that the car should be entered in the SCCA (Sport Car Club of America) series to demonstrate its abilities against potential showroom rivals such as the Porsche 911, Lotus Elan and Triumph 250.
Initially, Peter Brock, designer of the Daytona Cobra, was to be tasked with the job of preparing the cars, but at the last minute the deal was done with racing legend Carroll Shelby, Brock’s former boss and the mastermind behind the high performance AC Cobra and Ford Mustang.
Shelby’s preparation of the 2000GT focused on tyres, suspension and a new cylinder head. The body required little work, stripped of all soundproofing and insulation to bring the weight down. Goodyear developed new low profile rubber for the car, which brought the ride height down by around 6cm. Lowering the car’s centre of gravity delivered benefits in handling along with superior grip from the wide tyres. Road holding was also improved with addition of new steel anti-roll bars and Koni coil springs and shocks.
The 1,998cc straight-six engine retained its iron block, but was fitted with a new aluminium DOHC cylinder head. Output was in the region of 200bhp.
Driven by Scooter Patrick and Dave Jordan, the 2000GT competed in the production class of the SCCA series in 1968. Even though the Toyota delivered less power than its main rival, the Porsche 911, it still recorded a number of race victories. A Porsche took the overall title, but Patrick finished the season second and Jordan third.
That single season was to be the end of the 2000GT’s American racing story, the production sports car failing to achieve the sales breakthrough Toyota sought in the US market. Toyota focused instead on developing the formidable Toyota 7 sports car for CanAm competition.
THE LEGENDARY TOYOTA 7

Toyota took a big leap forward in the prototype category by commissioning the Toyota 7, its first competition thoroughbred machine.

Toyota continued to be represented in domestic touring car competition, principally by racing Celica and Corolla models. Its greatest success came with the Celica LB Turbo winning the Fuji 1,000km in 1973, but glory was short-lived: the international oil crisis brought Toyota’s racing activities to an abrupt halt.

At a meeting in London in 1972, the first steps were taken in forming a team that would dominate international motor sport. On one side were representatives of Toyota, on the other the tall, quiet Swedish driver Ove Andersson, winner of the previous year’s Monte Carlo Rally. Plans were agreed for him to drive a Toyota Celica on Britain’s RAC Rally that year and a subsequent ninth place finish – well ahead of the more highly-developed works Datsun 240Z entries – ensured the new rally programme would continue.

In 1979 TTE relocated to Cologne, with all-new workshops on Toyota Allee. In 1991 Toyota committed to increasing its TTE shareholding and expanding the team’s facilities and by 1993 TTE was fully owned by Toyota Motor Corporation. Its name was changed to Toyota Motorsport GmBH (TMG), with Ove Andersson as company president. By this point, the number of staff had increased from an original 20 to more than 300, drawn from 17 different countries.

The introduction of Group A regulations for four-wheel drive cars opened the way for Toyota to build one of the all-time great rally machines. The Celica GT-Four, code named ST165, was Toyota’s first full-time four-wheel rally car to compete in the World Rally Championship and had the distinction of providing Toyota with its first drivers’ championship title, claimed by Carlos Sainz in 1990.

The car was nearing its peak of perfection at the outset of the 1991 season, winning the Monte Carlo, Portugal, Corsica, New Zealand, Argentina and Catalunya rallies. Fate took a hand, however, and Sainz’s retirements from two consecutive events were enough to deny him back-to-back titles. But the GT-Four succeeded in playing a formidable role in establishing Toyota and TTE as a major player among the factory teams, achieving its full potential within just two years of its launch.

From 1996 Toyota developed the Corolla to take on the role of its WRC challenger, the car making its debut on the Rally of Indonesia and scoring its first win on the Rally of Canberra. In 1997, it began its WRC campaign on Rally Finland, marking Toyota Castrol Team’s return to front-line competition after an absence of more than a year-and-a-half.

Toyota was one of the first car manufacturers to recognise the value and importance of Formula 3. Initially, it re-imported engines that were race-tuned by Novamotor in Italy, but gradually Japanese tuning specialists, including TOM’S, started to participate.

Toyota re-entered the circuit racing scene in the 1980s, capitalising on its renewed popularity in Japan. Toyota Team TOM’S spearheaded the resurgence and guided Toyota’s involvement in endurance sportscar racing both in Japan and Europe.

Toyota’s involvement in endurance racing also extended to the USA, where Toyota Racing Development (TRD) was set up in 1979 to oversee sporting activities, including entry in the North American IMSA Championship.

To capitalise on this success, Toyota established a partnership Gurney in 1989 to develop a new car for IMSA’s GTP category. The subsequent development of this machine as the Toyota Eagle Mark III produced one of the true legends of American motor sport, with record-breaking performances in the early 1990s.

In 1983 Toyota broadened its motor sport activities in North America, developing a racing truck (pick-up) with Precision Preparation Inc for stadium and off-road competition. Through to 1994, the Toyota/PPI team dominated the sport with nine drivers’ and 11 manufacturers’ titles.

In 1994 Toyota approved a programme to enter CART racing (later known as Champ Cars), the world’s fastest motor sport series. It is a highly demanding championship, fought out on oval tracks, super speedways, road courses and street circuits.

Toyota's CART campaign reaped the ultimate reward in 2002. The manufacturer dominated the series with Toyota drivers finishing one-two in the championship (Cristiano da Matta and Bruno Junqueira) and Toyota leading the series in every major category. Overall, Toyota-powered Champ Cars won a series-record 21 races in three successive seasons of competition.

Cristiano da Matta won seven races and seven pole positions for the Newman/Haas team on his way to the CART driver's title and his selection as American auto racing's "Driver of the Year."

Toyota subsequently left the series to make the move into Formula 1, with Cristiano da Matta later signing as one of its grand prix drivers. Meanwhile Toyota’s US racing division switched its attention to oval racing and the Indy Racing League (IRL), claiming a one-two-three finish in its first race at Homestead in 2003. The success continued at the famous Indy 500, where Toyota became the first Japanese engine manufacturer to win on its debut. More than that, it claimed a one-two in the race, courtesy of Gil de Ferran and Helio Castroneves.

Having come so close to success in the past, Toyota set its sights again on adding a Le Mans victory to its roll of international sporting successes. Using its European base at TTE, it launched an intensive programme and recruited Andre de Cortanze, a designer whose past work included the Le Mans-winning Peugeot 905.

As a world-leading manufacturer of 4x4 vehicles, it is not surprising that Toyota has a successful record in off-road racing, both in the US and in Europe.

Beyond its involvement in major international motor sports activities, Toyota has been – and still is – active in many Japanese domestic championships, including GT, touring car, single-seater and one-make series.

Toyota worked with APR Racing to develop at Prius GT for the GT300 class, using the same Hybrid Synergy Drive technology as in the road-going car, but incorporating a 300hp 3.4-litre V8 competition engine. The block is mounted centrally inside the car, and the hybrid components are moved to the passenger footwell, in order to maintain the best chassis balance.

To help discover and encourage new talent, Toyota created the Formula Toyota series and, in the same spirit, established one-make series for the Vitz (Yaris).

In 1999, Toyota announced its intention to enter Formula 1. Two years later, on 23 March 2001, at the Paul Ricard circuit in the South of France, the first Toyota Formula 1 test car was presented to 500 international journalists. By December that year the F1 team was fully in place and first race car was unveiled in Cologne.

Toyota entered the world of NASCAR stock car racing in the USA in 2000 with a V6 Celica entered in the Goody’s Dash series for Robert Huffman. Huffman went on to take the drivers’ title in 2003.

Toyota first appeared in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) in 2007, entering its Camry saloon. Bill Davis Racing (BDR), Red Bull Racing Team (RBRT) and Michael Waltrip Racing (MWR) gave Camry its debut in its first NSCS race at Daytona International Speedway in February 2007. Later that season, BDR’s Dave Blaney won Toyota’s first Sprint Cup Series pole position at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. The biggest news that year came off the track, though, as Toyota Motor Sales, USA, Inc., and Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) announced in September that the three-time championship-winning team would campaign Toyotas from the 2008 season.

In 2008, Denny Hamlin earned Toyota’s first Sprint Cup Series victory, albeit in a non-points scoring race in February. Less than a month later Kyle Busch registered the first regular season NSCS victory at Atlanta. Including Busch’s inaugural triumph, Camry drivers have registered 49 wins in Sprint Cup Series competition over the past five years, with three separate teams and seven different drivers winning races.

In 2011, Camry drivers won six races, and Busch and Hamlin were among the 12 drivers that participated in the Chase for the Sprint Cup Series championship playoff.

In 2012, the sixth season of NSCS competition for Toyota, Camry drivers won 10 races. Clint Bowyer, Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr. qualified for the 12-driver Chase for the Sprint Cup championship playoff with Bowyer finishing second in the final NSCS point standings -- equalling Hamlin’s runner-up result in 2010. Hamlin recorded a series-best five wins, and Bowyer earned three wins in his first season behind the wheel of a Camry for MWR.
NASCAR Nationwide Series

Toyota has contested eight NASCAR Nationwide Series championships with JGR claiming the series Owner’s Championship four times and Kyle Busch winning the 2009 Driver’s Championship, along with four consecutive Manufacturer’s Championships (2008-2010, 2012). In six seasons of NNS competition, Camry drivers have won 74 races.

Through its luxury division, Lexus, Toyota began supplying engines to the Grand American Sports Car series in 2004. The 5.0-litre V8 used in American versions of the Lexus GS, SC and LS models proved an immediate success, with Scott Pruett claiming the drivers’ title and his Chip Ganassi Racing team also claiming championship honours.

The Lexus LFA supercar returned to the Nürburgring 24 Hours race in 2010 and duly claimed victory in the SP8 (near-production class). It was the first time the production LFA had been seen in full-blooded competition, taking on one of the world’s most challenging circuits in a marathon test of speed, handling and durability. In two previous outings in the event, development versions of the LFA were raced primarily to help hone performance and handling. This time the LFA will line up as a prime challenger in standard production car guise.

Toyota’s involvement in the British Touring Car Championship, one of the world’s most popular saloon racing series, goes back to the early 1980s. Its first success was with a Corolla, with which Win Percy claimed the 1982 championship.

In 2012 Toyota re-entered the top flight of international sports car racing with an all new car, the TS030 Hybrid. Equipped with THS-R (Toyota Hybrid System – Racing), the all-new car was designed to LMP1 regulations for the FIA World Endurance Championship and the Le Mans 24 Hours.

ENDS