Toyota Gazoo Racing

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Toyota Gazoo Racing

Formerly	Team Gazoo (2007–2009) Gazoo Racing (2009–2015)
Type	Division
Industry	Automotive
Founded	2007
Headquarters	Japan
Products	High-performance engines and cars Automotive sports accessories
Services	Automobile tuning
Parent	Toyota Motor Corporation
Divisions	Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota Gazoo Racing Europe Toyota Gazoo Racing SA
Website	www.toyotagazooracing.com

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, and the GR 86.

History[]

In 2007, an in-house team consisted 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.^[1] At that time, he was not allowed to call the team "Works Toyota Racing". Therefore, the name Team 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 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.^[2] 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.^[3]

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.^[4]

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".^[5] 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 the TGR's ambassador. TGR also had acquired the naming rights for the first corner of the affiliated Fuji Speedway and renamed it to "TGR Corner".^[6] 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.^[7] 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.^[8] 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.^[9][10]

In 2019, the GR Supra, the first GR brand-exclusive car, was released. The GR Sport variant of the Daihatsu Copen also took Gazoo Racing the first step as a brand beyond the Toyota's frame.

In 2020, the GR Yaris, the second GR-branded car, was announced. It is produced at the "GR Factory" in Motomachi plant, a production line dedicated to GR-branded cars that are not using the conveyor belt type.^[11]

Models[]

GR (bespoke models)[]

Current production models

Model		Calendar year introduced	Market(s)
	GR 86	2021	Global
	GR Supra	2019	Global
	GR Yaris	2020	Japan, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Mexico, Argentina, Taiwan

Concept models

• Toyota GR HV Sports Concept (2017)
• Toyota GR Super Sport Concept (2018)

• 

  Toyota GR HV Sports Concept

• 

  Toyota GR Super Sport Concept

GR Sport/GR-S[]

Current production models

Model		Calendar year introduced	Market(s)
	Agya GR Sport	2021	Indonesia
	Avanza Veloz GR Limited	2021	Indonesia
	Camry GR Sport	2021	Russia,[12] Kazakhstan[13]
	Copen GR Sport	2019	Japan
	Corolla/Corolla Altis GR Sport	2019	Europe, Thailand, Taiwan, Brazil, Argentina
	Corolla Cross GR Sport	2021	Taiwan
	C-HR GR Sport	2019	Japan, Europe, Australia
	Fortuner GR Sport	2021	Indonesia, Thailand
	Hilux GR Sport	2019	South Africa, South America, Thailand
	Land Cruiser GR Sport	2021	Japan, Middle East, Australia, South Africa
	Noah/Voxy GR Sport	2017	Japan
	Prius PHV GR Sport	2017	Japan
	Raize GR Sport	2021	Indonesia
	Rush GR Sport	2021	Indonesia
	Vios GR-S	2021	Malaysia, Vietnam, Philippines
	Yaris GR Sport (XP150)	2021	Indonesia

Former production models

• 86 GR Sport (2018–2020, Japan only)
• Aqua GR Sport (2017–2021, Japan only)
• Harrier GR Sport (2017–2020, Japan only)
• Mark X GR Sport (2017–2019, Japan only)
• Prius α GR Sport (2017–2021, Japan only)
• Vitz GR Sport (2017–2020, Japan only)
• Yaris GR Sport (XP130) (2019–2020, Europe only)

• 

  86 GR Sport

• 

  Aqua GR Sport

• 

  Harrier GR Sport

• 

  Mark X GR Sport

• 

  Prius α GR Sport

• 

  Vitz GR Sport

• 

  Yaris GR Sport (XP130)

GR (trim)[]

Former production models

• 86 GR (2018–2020, Japan only)
• Vitz GR (2017–2020, Japan only)

• 

  86 GR

• 

  Vitz GR

GRMN[]

Limited-production models

Model		Year and number built	Market(s)
	86 GRMN	2016 (100 units)	Japan
	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
	Mark X GRMN	2015 (100 units), 2019 (350 units)	Japan
	Vitz GRMN Turbo	2013 (200 units)	Japan
	Vitz GRMN	2018 (150 units)	Japan
	Yaris GRMN	2018 (400 units)	Europe

See also[]

• Toyota in motorsport
• Toyota Racing Development
• Toyota G Sports

References[]

External links[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Gazoo Racing.

• Official website (global)