Toyota Gazoo Racing

Toyota Gazoo Racing (or Toyota GR/TGR) is a motorsport/performance brand of the Japanese automaker Toyota.

Many divisions in various racing disciplines use the branding, including Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT, Toyota's World Rally Championship team; Toyota Gazoo Racing Europe, Toyota's World Endurance Championship team; Toyota Gazoo Racing UK, Toyota's British Touring Car Championship team; Toyota Gazoo Racing South Africa, Toyota's cross-country rally division; and Toyota Gazoo Racing Argentina, a national subsidiary team.

The "GR" brand is also used for some performance-oriented road cars such as the GR Supra, the GR Yaris, the GR86, and the GR Corolla.

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History

In 2007, an in-house team consisting of student test drivers and mechanics led by Hiromu Naruse, who was a test driver of Toyota, competed in the 24 Hours Nürburgring race. Akio Toyoda, then the vice president of Toyota, who received driving instruction directly from Naruse, also participated as a driver. At that time, he was not allowed to call the team "Works Toyota Racing". Therefore, the name Team Gazoo was used instead. "Gazoo" (from ) is the name of a portal site that Toyota was involved in establishing. And in public relations, the drivers were also given the nicknames "Cap" for Naruse and "Morizo" for Toyoda. Also, as there were minimal budgets, they used the Altezzas and BMW E90s, which at the time had been discontinued, as the race car project. The Gazoo website posted the activity report as an amateur race project.

From 2009, the team continued to participate in the race by introducing development models such as the Lexus LF-A and the FT-86 with the goal of "training people and cars at the Nürburgring, the sacred place for new car development" under the Gazoo Racing name. The drivers include professional racers such as Takayuki Kinoshita, Akira Iida, and Hiroaki Ishiura, but the mechanics and engineers are selected from the employees. In 2014, the team had to play a three-class domination to honor Naruse's accidental death in June 2010.

After Toyoda taking office as the President of Toyota in 2009, the scope of Gazoo Racing has expanded, and it has organized several circuit events such as the "86/BRZ Race" and the "Toyota Gazoo Racing Festival", which is held every November. In addition, the sports conversion brands called "GRMN" (''Gazoo Racing, tuned by the Meister of the Nürburgring'') and " G's/G Sports" was established in 2009 and 2010 respectively.

From April 2015, all motorsports activities that had been divided into "Gazoo Racing", "Toyota Racing" and "Lexus Racing" have been unified with "Gazoo Racing". Toyota and Lexus brand racing activities are under the Gazoo Racing umbrella and are called "Toyota Gazoo Racing" and "Lexus Gazoo Racing". From this year onwards, Toyota Gazoo Racing (TGR) works machines use a common color scheme of red and black stripes on a white background. At the same time, the "Great Skills Training Department" has been set up to develop human resources who can participate in Gazoo Racing activities centered on rallies and Nürburgring.

In 2016, Juichi Wakisaka, who had retired from Super GT, became an ambassador for TGR. TGR also had acquired the naming rights for the first corner of the affiliated Fuji Speedway and renamed it to "TGR Corner". In addition, actor Takeru Satoh was appointed as a television advertisement character to carry out publicity activities.

In 2017, the Toyota Gazoo Racing Factory, which had been developing motorsport vehicles, was reorganized and the "Gazoo Racing Company" was established. As an in-house company, it strengthened its independence and contributed to Toyota's car making by feeding back the knowledge gained in the race to road cars, and the direction to secure profitability was decided. The sports conversion brand was reorganized into the GR series ("GRMN", "GR", "GR Sport/GR-S" and "GR Parts"), and the "GR Garage", which is a regional base, was set up at dealers in each region.

In 2019, the GR Supra, the first GR brand-exclusive car, was released. The GR Supra shares a platform with the BMW Z4 (G29) and is produced under contract by Magna Steyr in Austria.

In 2020, the GR Yaris, the second GR-branded car, and the first produced by Toyota, was launched. It is produced at the "GR Factory" inside the Motomachi plant, a production line dedicated to GR-branded vehicles. Unlike most automobile plants, the "GR Factory" does not use a conveyor belt assembly line, instead vehicles are built at stations with more manual assembly processes. The "GR Factory" employs experienced technicians recruited from throughout the company.

In 2021, the GR86, the third GR-branded car, was introduced. The vehicle is the second generation of the 86 sports car, which are jointly developed with Subaru, and produced Subaru's Gunma assembly plant.

In 2022, the GR Corolla, the fourth GR-branded car, and the second produced by Toyota, was unveiled. Built mainly for the North American market, the GR Corolla will be produced at the "GR Factory" alongside the GR Yaris, which is not sold in North America.

Models

Gazoo Racing is involved in the creation of vehicles in three categories. GR models are bespoke vehicles, GR Sport models are more entry-level conversions of existing models, and GRMN (''Gazoo Racing, tuned by the Meister of the Nürburgring'') models are the top of the line, limited production conversions of existing models, including GR vehicles.

GR series

GR Sport (GR-S) series

GRMN series

Former production models

* 86 GR Sport (2018–2020, Japan only)
* 86 GR (2018–2020, Japan only)
* Aqua GR Sport (NHP10) (2017–2021, Japan only)
* Avanza Veloz GR Limited (2021, Indonesia only)
* Harrier GR Sport (2017–2020, Japan only)
* Mark X GR Sport (2017–2019, Japan only)
* Noah/Voxy GR Sport (2017–2021, Japan only)
* Prius α GR Sport (2017–2021, Japan only)
* Prius PHV GR Sport (2017–2022, Japan only)
* Vitz GR Sport (2017–2020, Japan only)
* Vitz GR (2017–2020, Japan only)
* Yaris GR Sport (XP130) (2019–2020, Europe only)

Concept models

* GR HV Sports Concept (2017)
* GR Super Sport Concept (2018)
* GR GT3 Concept (2022)
* bZ4X GR Sport Concept (2022)

See also

* Toyota in motorsport
* Toyota Racing Development
* Toyota G Sports

References

External links

* (global)

{{Toyota Motor Corporation

Toyota
Official motorsports and performance division of automakers
Auto parts suppliers of Japan
Dakar rally racing teams
2007 establishments in Japan
Super GT teams
Toyota in motorsport
Toyota subsidiaries