What did Toyota bring to the 2024 Goodwood Festival of Speed?

Toyota’s showcase of race, rally, off-road and high-performance vehicles at the 2024 Goodwood Festival of Speed demonstrated how motorsport is feeding directly into our development of ever-better road cars. The four-day event also illustrated our broad, multi-path strategy for reducing harmful emissions and to ultimately achieve carbon neutrality. We reveal the famous faces and motorsport stars who helped celebrate Toyota’s successes and future opportunities.

Toyota at the 2024 Goodwood Festival of Speed:

Toyota Gazoo Racing World Rally Team was out in force with eight-time world champion Sébastien Ogier, reigning champion Kalle Rovanperä and 2024 title-challenger Elfyn Evans. The team presented both the current GR Yaris Rally1 Hybrid (above) to festival goers and – new this season – an example of the GR Yaris Rally2, which made its official debut in the second tier of the WRC this year and was developed primarily for independent customer teams.

Team principal Jari-Matti Latvala (above centre) hosted the official handover of the keys of two GR Yaris special edition models to Rovanperä (left) and Ogier (right) and introduced a special message from TGR-WRT chairman Akio Toyoda who thanked them for their championship-winning contributions. The drivers each had direct input into the special editions – produced only in very limited numbers – tailoring the cars’ handling to their personal preferences. Rovanperä also demonstrated his drifting prowess on Goodwood’s iconic hill climb in his specially engineered GR Supra.

Toyota Gazoo Racing’s mighty GR DKR Hilux Evo T1U (below) gave a taste of the all-terrain capabilities that are making it a leading contender in this year’s 2024 FIA World Rally-Raid Championship. The mighty Hilux tackled all three of the festival’s courses – hill climb, rally stage and off-road – piloted by Toyota Gazoo Racing team members Seth Quintero, Dennis Zenz and Armand Monleon.

Finally, Toyota Gazoo Racing UK’s British Touring Car Championship Corolla (below) completed our active participation on the hill climb. The car has already achieved a number of podium finishes and a race win during this year’s BTCC series.

Strengthening the link between motorsport and road cars

Toyota’s engagement in top-level international motorsport continues to produce knowledge and expertise that is directly supporting our mission to develop ever-better road cars. At Goodwood, this was witnessed in the new GR Yaris, which has been further honed to offer more power, even sharper handling and the option of a new eight-speed Gazoo Racing Direct Automatic transmission.

Toyota is also actively exploring the potential for internal combustion engines to run on alternative, carbon neutral fuels – a technology that could help preserve the sensory excitement of motorsport driving.

The video above interviews actor and automotive aficionado Rowan Atkinson after having taking the wheel of the first European-built hydrogen-fuelled GR Yaris on Goodwood’s hill climb course. Also invited to experience the car from the passenger seat were special guests David Richards (image below), chairman of both the motorsport and advanced technology business Prodrive and the national sporting organisation Motorsport UK, and the Duke of Richmond, owner of the Goodwood Estate.

In addition, the multi-technology theme extended to support vehicles used at the event, which included the hydrogen fuel cell Hilux prototype and the efficient Corolla Commercial hybrid (below).

When and where was the 2024 Goodwood Festival of Speed?

This year marked the 31st edition of the Goodwood Festival of Speed, which took place on 11-14 July 2024. The event was held within the parkland grounds of the Goodwood Estate in West Sussex. It is located just outside Chichester, approximately 60 miles from London, and 30 miles from Brighton and Southampton.