Headlining the Toyota Gazoo Racing booth at the ongoing 2022 Tokyo Auto Salon is the GR GT3 Concept – a conceptual take on customer racing and a new approach to motorsports.
Unlike adapting production vehicles for use in motorsports, Toyota Gazoo Racing intends to develop this specific vehicle for customers to participate in global FIA GT3 racing series. The idea by Toyota Motor Corporation as a whole is to make the motorsports industry sustainable.
The GR GT3 Concept is aimed to promote ‘driver first’ car development with a desire to provide attractive cars for customers who are participating in GT3. The company further expands that feedback and technologies refined through its participation in various motorsports activities to develop both the GT3 and production cars further promoting ever-better motorsport-bred cars.
Based on the images provided, the GR GT3 Concept should still be propelled by good old combustion engine technology, as seen by the exhaust outlet at the front fender. The silhouette is unlike any current or even future Toyota model, making it a rather interesting project.
Toyota, via Lexus, currently offers the Lexus RC F GT3 machine for global endurance racing to its customers.
In a short interview, Koji Sato, President of Gazoo Racing Company said the vehicle is currently being in the virtual development stage with the participation of racing drivers for the delivery of a prototype soon. However, his boss, Akio Toyoda, was quick to push for only the best, “We have to develop a car which can win the race! A pilot car is not enough!”
Their latest model, the GR Yaris GRMN, is the embodiment of this new approach, continuously developed and refined through various participation in events for an even better hot hatchback. It doesn’t come cheap though, as all the manufacturer-made improvement has bumped the car price to over JPY 8million, double the price of a normal GR Yaris!
