Toyota’s commitment to motorsports was cemented at the 2022 Tokyo Auto Salon with the unveiling of the Gazoo Racing (GR) GT3 Concept. Now, Toyota’s World Endurance Championship (WEC) team director, Rob Leupen, has given us more details to consider.
Although Toyota was reported to be preparing the racecar for a 2025 race debut, a year after the WEC opened a category up to GT3 cars, that launch appears to have been delayed to help the competition car’s schedule line up better with the roadgoing version.
“Everybody knows we are developing a car, and this car will come to race in Europe in 2026,” Leupen told Motorsport.com. “The date is in alignment with the road car side, which is following the philosophy of Toyota to have a motorsport-bred car on the road. This is moving forward at the moment.”
Read: Toyota Gets Our Attention With Non-Supra Based GR GT3 Coupe Concept
Given that the car will compete in a class higher than the Supra GT4, we can also expect the roadgoing version to have even more performance than Toyota’s sports car. That means that the automaker is likely to give the car to its higher end brand, Lexus.
Asked if that was the case, Leupen said: “At the moment, it seems to be. It depends on how it develops within Toyota, but at the moment yes.”
Long, low, and wide, regardless of which brand the GR GT3 concept is eventually sold by, its mix of new and familiar design cues are likely to move that automaker’s design language forward. That language is likely to trickle down to other vehicles, and based on initial impressions, these design cues would be welcome in other Lexus models.
Just what will power the car remains to be announced, but the exhaust port behind the front wheel suggests that an internal combustion engine will be involved.
