Toyota Gazoo Racing GR GT and GT GT3 revealed

After months of rumours and carefully rationed teasers, Toyota Gazoo Racing has finally revealed the GR GT and GT GT3: its bid to return properly serious driver’s cars to the range.

We now have some proper information. Following a handful of indistinct videos and an appearance at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, where both machines were wrapped more tightly than a boxer’s fists, they can at last be seen in full. They look fascinating enough that we have travelled to the launch at Fuji Speedway in Japan to discover what Toyota has been planning. Forgive us if the jet lag shows.

Toyota Gazoo Racing GR GT design and construction

First up is the GT. This two-seat road car is a long-bonneted grand tourer with a cab-rear proportion, recalling the Mercedes-AMG GT, Dodge Viper, Mercedes SLS or, really, almost any front-engined, rear-wheel-drive car shaped around this formula. It is a substantial machine as well: low, broad and 4,820mm long, nearly 2m wide and 1,195mm tall. In person, it has real visual weight and sits much lower than expected.

Its structure is aluminium, supplemented by extensive CFRP (carbonfibre-reinforced plastic) components. The bonnet, roof, door skins and boot lid use the lightweight material, while the fundamental sections are fashioned from more cost-effective alloy. It is Toyota’s first use of this sort of architecture. Toyota is also explicitly positioning the GT as a successor to the 1960s 2000GT and the LFA, even though a more directly related, LFA-inspired Lexus is due later; you can read more about that here.

Toyota says it has deliberately brought in senior engineers who worked on the LFA to support the GR GT team and pass on ‘the secret sauce of car-making’ to the newer generation. The approach follows ‘Shikinen Sengu’, the tradition of periodically rebuilding a Shinto shrine. It is precisely the sort of Japanese philosophy we love.

GR GT V8 hybrid powertrain and chassis

The standard road-going GT uses a unique 4.0-litre twin-turbo petrol V8, with the turbos mounted in the engine’s “hot-vee”. A mild-hybrid system supports it, using one electric motor integrated into the transaxle, which is bolted to the front of an all-new eight-speed paddle-shift automatic gearbox. Rather than a conventional torque converter, there is a wet-start clutch, plus a mechanical limited-slip differential. The small electric motor fills the brief torque gap during acceleration and gear changes.

Toyota quotes a maximum combined output of 641bhp and 627lb ft, but intriguingly places ‘or greater’ after both figures, suggesting it has already left some room for more. Its mass is given as 1,750kg… ‘or lower’. At the very least, that will keep speculation alive, because 1,750kg is hardly lightweight.

No performance figures have been confirmed yet, although expect 0-62mph in under four seconds and a 199mph maximum speed. Toyota has again indicated that the top speed could be higher than 199mph, however, so production cars should likely pass 200mph. If only for the Top Trumps figures. Double-wishbone suspension with coil springs is fitted at both ends, while the standard brakes are the familiar dinner-plate-sized Brembo carbon-ceramics. Michelin Cup 2 tyres sit on lightweight wheels. All of which is fairly conventional for this class.

Toyota is clearly serious, though. The engine sits so far rearward that it may as well warm your knees, while the rear-mounted gearbox and flattened driveline create an exceptionally low centre of gravity. Weight distribution is 45 per cent at the front and 55 per cent at the rear. Driver engagement, enjoyment and interaction evidently rank highly among Toyota’s priorities here. Music to Top Gear’s ears - as is the sound of a V8.

Aerodynamics and interior

The styling was developed alongside the aerodynamic work, rather than despite it. From the side and front three-quarter views, it is genuinely eye-opening. The nose features large cooling grilles and huge intakes, vented through the underside of the bonnet, while triangular NACA-style ducts sit closer to the windscreen. There is more than a hint of the LFA in those details.

Large outlets behind the front wheels cool the brakes and settle turbulence in the front wheelarches. At the rear are an extremely short overhang, a two-stage ducktail spoiler and four exhaust outlets housed in separate pods. It is assertive, fluid and distinctly Japanese - all excellent qualities - although the initial reveal does make you consider what other cars it resembles. Choose freely: this is Sportscar Shape v.1, meaning comparisons can be made with virtually any vehicle sharing this drivetrain arrangement. In the metal, it looks excellent and exceptionally dramatic, an antidote to the softly flowing, smoothed-out forms of the Mercedes-AMG GT.

The cabin is unexpectedly restrained, although it appears calm and purposeful. Comfortable sports seats sit beneath a commanding view over a bonnet the size of a football pitch. There is a digital instrument display with prominent shift lights and gear-position indicators, a flat-bottomed steering wheel, and several controls positioned close to it. The transmission tunnel is broad and tall, ending at the gear-selector paddle and carrying a comparatively modest touchscreen. This is no luxury flagship, and it does not pretend to be: TGR appears focused on the driving experience with this one.

Most excitingly, Toyota does not view this as a limited-run £500,000-plus special. Instead, it is intended as a fast, daily-usable, track-capable fun car, not a 1,200bhp vapourware unicorn. And it is entirely new. In a world that appeared to have abandoned V8s, Toyota is delivering something increasingly unusual: a new petrol sports car. Rumour has it that it is aimed squarely at the Mercedes-AMG GT - and therefore several Porsche products - which suggests £105,000 for an entry-level GT, rising to around £180,000 for a GT63. That remains costly, but it is attainable.

Toyota Gazoo Racing GT GT3 race car

Should you have still more money available, you could put some towards racing. The GR GT is arriving simultaneously as a fully FIA-specification GT3 racer (see below). Without race livery, it looks monstrous. A bare monster. As is customary in GT3, it develops the basic road car with a front splitter resembling a snowplough, more forceful intakes and vents, canards, and openings in the bonnet. Its side skirts are industrial-looking, the floor is flat, and the Venturi section is wide enough to occupy most of the car’s rear.

Then there is the picnic-table-ready gooseneck rear wing. Inside are a full roll cage, a yoke steering wheel, and the standard single-brain-style motorsport electronics and safety equipment. Yet once you have seen it, it becomes difficult to dismiss the possibility that a GR GT-R road car could emerge at some point in the future...