 | |
| Product type | High-performanceengines andcars Automotive sports accessories Motorsport services |
|---|---|
| Owner | Toyota Motor Corporation |
| Produced by | Toyota |
| Introduced | 2007 |
| Markets | Worldwide |
| Tagline | Pushing the Limits for Better |
| Website | toyotagazooracing |
| Company | |
Key people | Tomoya Takahashi (President andGeneral Manager) |
| [1] | |
Toyota Gazoo Racing (TGR) is amotorsport division of the Japanese car manufacturerToyota. Alongside competition activities, the division develops technologies for theGazoo Racing (GR) sub-brand of Toyota's sports and performance-oriented production road cars.[2][3]
Stylised by the manufacturer asTOYOTA GAZOO Racing, TGR compete most notably as the manufacturer's entries inFIA'sWorld Rally Championship (asTGR WRT),World Endurance Championship andWorld Rally-Raid Championship.Toyota Gazoo Racing Europe (TGR Europe) is a research and development facility based inCologne, Germany, with branches in the United Kingdom and Finland.[4]
The GR-branded performance road cars include theGR Supra, theGR Yaris, theGR86, and theGR Corolla.[5]
TGR enteredFormula One withHaas F1 Team as a technical partner. The partnership includes aiming to foster the growth of young Japanese drivers, engineers, and mechanics in the sport.
In 2007, an in-house team consisting of student test drivers and mechanics led byHiromu Naruse, who was a test driver of Toyota, competed in the24 Hours Nürburgring race.Akio Toyoda, then the vice president of Toyota, who received driving instruction directly from Naruse, also participated as a driver.[6] At that time, he was not allowed to call the team "Works Toyota Racing". Therefore, the nameTeam Gazoo was used instead. "Gazoo" (from 画像 (Gazō,lit. "image")) 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 theAltezzas andBMW 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 2002 to 2009,Toyota Motorsport GmbH, based in Cologne, Germany, which has been named Toyota Gazoo Racing Europe since April 2020, had been engineering and developingFormula One cars for their parent company Toyota to compete in theFIA Formula One World Championship, the highest and the most prestigious single seater auto-racing championship in the world, within these eight years their Toyota Formula One team racing under the name Panasonic Toyota Racing, achieved very rare success with the total of thirteen podium finishes which includes five second places, three pole positions and three fastest laps recorded. Being the highest budget team in the sport with experienced drivers on the F1 grid, they failed to win a single race and withdrew from the sport at the end of the2009 season, stating theglobal economic crisis which had severely affected the automotive industry to be the main reason; Toyota's main Japanese rival in the sportHonda had already departed from F1 a year before in 2008. Although Toyota had already developed their F1 carTF110 for the2010 season but complete withdrawal from F1 activities had put an end to their time in the sport. Toyota also supplied their Formula One engines toJordan F1 Racing,Midland F1 Racing and theWilliams Formula One Team during their eight years time in the sport.
From 2009 onwards, as the company continued to participate in their motorsports activities, they introduced and engineered the development models such as theLexus LF-A and theFT-86 with the goal of "training people and cars at theNürburgring, the sacred place for new car development" under theGazoo Racing name.[7] The drivers include professional racers such asTakayuki Kinoshita,Akira Iida, andHiroaki 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.[8]
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.[9]
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".[10] 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 retired fromSuper GT and became an ambassador for TGR. TGR also had acquired the naming rights for the first corner of the affiliatedFuji Speedway and renamed it to "TGR Corner".[11] In addition, actorTakeru Satoh was appointed as atelevision 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.[12] 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.[13] 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.[14][15]
In 2019, theGR Supra, the first GR brand-exclusive car, was released. The GR Suprashares a platform with theBMW Z4 (G29) and is produced under contract byMagna Steyr in Austria.
In 2020, theGR Yaris, the second GR-branded car, and the first produced by Toyota, was launched. It is produced at the "GR Factory" inside theMotomachi plant, a production line dedicated to GR-branded vehicles. Unlike most automobile plants, the "GR Factory" does not use aconveyor belt assembly line, instead vehicles are built at stations with more manual assembly processes.[16] The "GR Factory" employs experienced technicians recruited from throughout the company.[17]
In 2021, theGR86, 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 at Subaru'sGunma assembly plant.
In 2022, theGR Corolla, the fourth GR-branded car, and the second produced by Toyota, was unveiled to the public. Built primarily for the North American market, the GR Corolla is produced at the "GR Factory" alongside the GR Yaris, which is not sold in North America.[17]
TheToyota Gazoo Racing World Rally Team (TGR WRT) is based inJyväskylä, Finland. The team was established and operated by an independent company,Tommi Mäkinen Racing, upon request of Toyota for their return to the championship in 2017. TGR Europe later purchased Tommi Mäkinen Racing and its assets in 2020, bringing the team under the manufacturer's control.
The TGR WRT operatedYaris WRC cars between 2017 and 2021, winning the championship for manufacturers twice in 2018 and 2021, and the drivers and co-driver champion titles in 2019 forOtt Tänak andMartin Järveoja; andSébastien Ogier andJulien Ingrassia in 2020 and 2021. Since 2022, the team has operated hybridGR Yaris Rally1 cars, winning a third manufacturer's championship in the cars first year, along with the driver and co-driver championship titles forKalle Rovanperä andJonne Halttunen.
Former rally driversJari-Matti Latvala andJuha Kankkunen are the team principals.
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Toyota Gazoo Racing's entry inFIA World Endurance Championship is operated by TGR Europe and is operated from the company's headquarters inCologne, Germany. TGR Europe was formerly known asToyota Motorsport GmbH (TMG) prior to 2016.
Racing under the Toyota Gazoo Racing name since 2016, the team have won the World Endurance Championship four times, with wins at Le Mans three times with its LMP1 classTS050 Hybrid, and twice with the LMHGR010 Hybrid.
TGR Europe also enters theNürburgring 24 Hours endurance race.
Toyota Gazoo Racing announced the use of theToyota Supra in the JapaneseSuper GT racing series from2020 onward.[18][19] TGR partners with multiple race teams in the series, including TGRTeam au TOM'S, TGRTeam SARD, TGRTeam WedsSport Bandoh, TGRTeam KeePer TOM'S, TGR Team Wako'sROOKIE, and TGR Team ZENTCerumo.
TGR Team au TOM'S has won the Super GT championship in the GT500 class three times, in2021,2023, and2024.[20][21][22]
Entries in both theDakar Rally andFIA World Rally-Raid Championship under the global TGR name are operated by Toyota Gazoo Racing South Africa, an alias for independent local company, Hallspeed.[23] The company entered rally-raids at home and internationally under the direction of Toyota South Africa from 2012 until 2019 whenNasser Al-Attiyah andMathieu Baumel won the car class outright.[24][25] Since 2020, the entry has been under the global Toyota Gazoo Racing name, with more support from the parent company. TGR also won Dakar in 2022 and 2023, with the inaugural World Rally-Raid Championship title in 2022 also.
Lithuanian driverBenediktas Vanagas and Estonian co-driverKuldar Sikk also compete internationally under the name of Toyota Gazoo Racing Baltics with support from the local Toyota dealer.[26]
In the UK,Speedworks Motorsport operate theBritish Touring Car Championship entries of Toyota Gazoo Racing UK.[27][28] In Argentina,Toyota Gazoo Racing Argentina enter various Argentine Championships.
On 11 October 2024, Toyota andHaas F1 Team announced a technical partnership whereby TGR will provide design, technical and manufacturing services whereas Haas will provide technical expertise and commercial benefits including TGR’s branding on the Haas cars.[29] In the announcement, Toyota chairmanAkio Toyoda stressed that the company is not making a comeback to the sport but to provide opportunities for its engineers, staff and drivers to experience Formula One.[30] A few months later in January 2025, TGR director of global motorsport Masaya Kaji said that Toyota is looking into returning into Formula One.[31] Toyota previously competed in Formula One from 2002 to 2009 as a factory team. TGR also partnered withFormula 2 teamHitech Grand Prix since 2024 as the main title sponsor.
Toyota Gazoo Racing usesGran Turismo 7 as a platform forvirtual motorsports through theGran Turismo World Series, and the Toyota Gazoo Racing GT Cup.[32][33][34]
Gazoo Racing is involved in the creation of vehicles in three categories. GR models are bespoke vehicles, GR Sport models are sport trims of existing Toyota models, GR Parts models are sport accessories packs of existing Toyota 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.
| Model | Image | Introduced | Market(s) | Note(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GR86 |  | 2021 | Global | A badge-engineered version of theSubaru BRZ |
| GR Corolla |  | 2022 | North America, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Thailand, Malaysia, South Africa, Indonesia | - |
| GR Supra |  | 2019 | Global | - |
| GR Yaris | _%25E2%2580%2593_f_03052021.jpg) | 2020 | Japan, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Philippines, Mexico, Argentina, Taiwan | Not available in North America |
| Model | Year and number built | Market(s) | |
|---|---|---|---|
 | 86 GRMN | 2016 (100 units) | Japan |
_at_Tokyo_Auto_Salon_2019_(cropped_2).jpg) | Century GRMN | 2018 (2 black and white units, not for sale) | Japan |
 | iQ GRMN | 2009 (100 units) | Japan |
 | iQ GRMN Supercharger | 2012 (100 units) | Japan |
.jpg) | Mark X GRMN | 2015 (100 units), 2019 (350 units) | Japan |
 | Vitz GRMN Turbo | 2013 (200 units) | Japan |
.jpg) | Vitz GRMN | 2018 (150 units) | Japan |
 | Yaris GRMN | 2018 (400 units) | Europe |
 | GRMN Yaris | 2022 (500 units) | Japan |
| Model | Introduced | Market(s) | |
|---|---|---|---|
_front_view.jpg) | Agya GR Sport (A350) | 2023 | Indonesia |
| Aygo X GR Sport | 2025 | Europe | |
 | Copen GR Sport | 2019 | Japan |
  | Corolla/Corolla Altis GR Sport/GR-S | 2019 | Europe, Thailand, Taiwan, Brazil, Argentina, China, The Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia |
.jpg) | Corolla Cross GR Sport/GR-S | 2021 | Taiwan, Thailand, Philippines, Argentina, Brazil, South Africa, Indonesia, Malaysia, Japan, Europe, Australia |
 | C-HR GR Sport (AX20) | 2023 | Europe, Australia |
 | Fortuner/SW4 GR Sport/GR-S | 2021 | Indonesia, Thailand, The Philippines, Argentina, Brazil, India, Pakistan |
 .jpg) | Hilux/Hilux Revo GR Sport/GR-S | 2019 | Japan, South Africa, South America, Thailand, The Philippines, Europe, Indonesia, Australia, Malaysia, Pakistan, New Zealand |
 | Land Cruiser GR Sport (J300) | 2021 | Japan, Middle East, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, South America, Indonesia |
.jpg) | Raize GR Sport (A250) | 2021 | Indonesia |
 | RAV4 GR Sport (XA60) | 2025 | North America, Europe |
_front_view.jpg) | Rush GR Sport/GR-S (F800) | 2021 | Indonesia, The Philippines |
_front_view_02.png) | Vios GR-S (XP150) | 2021 | Malaysia, The Philippines |
.jpg) | Vios / Yaris Ativ GR Sport (AC100) | 2025 | Thailand |
.jpg) | Yaris GR Sport (XP150) | 2021 | Indonesia |
_Automesse_Ludwigsburg_2022_1X7A5891.jpg) | Yaris GR Sport (XP210) | 2022 | Europe |
 | Yaris Cross GR Sport (XP210) | 2022 | Japan, Europe, Australia, New Zealand |
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