Toyota’s finest race, rally and road-going cars will add to the sound and spectacle of the Goodwood Festival of Speed next week (4 to 7 July).
Thousands of fans will descend on the historic Goodwood Estate in Sussex for this annual celebration of motoring and motorsport, which Toyota plans to enhance with the all-new Toyota GR Supra in road, race and drift specifications.
The new GR Supra GT4 Concept (above) will be in action on the famous hill climb for the first time, driven by Toyota Gazoo Racing driver Mike Conway. Its Goodwood appearance follows on from its world debut at the 2019 Geneva motor show, where it was presented as a study for how the new GR Supra might be developed as an affordable proposition for grassroots motorsport and GT4 competition.
The standard Toyota GR Supra will also be taking part in the festival, returning to the scene of its world premiere public driving appearance last year when it ran with its bodywork clothed in distinctive ‘A90’ camouflage. This time there will be no disguise as it heralds its much-anticipated arrival on UK roads later this year. Taking the wheel once again will be chief engineer Tetsuya Tada (above with Supra prototype), the sportscar genius who has led the legendary Supra’s renaissance and who also created the Toyota GT86 coupe.
Adding another dimension to the GR Supra experience at Goodwood, the Toyota GR Supra Drift by HKS will be performing demonstrations in the Live Action Arena. Created by renowned Japanese tuner HKS, it will be piloted by Nobuteru Taniguchi, one of Japan’s top drifting stars. Special features of this 700hp car include an HKS GTIII-4R turbo system, HKS Hipermax suspension, Endless Racing brakes and Yokohama Advan tyres and wheels.
The leading motorsport attraction on the Toyota stand will be the #8 Toyota TS050 Hybrid that was driven to victory at this year’s Le Mans 24 Hours by Sébastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima and Fernando Alonso. The second successive win at the world-famous race formed part of an FIA World Endurance Championship season in which Toyota Gazoo Racing claimed both the driver and manufacturer world titles.
It will be featured alongside the specially engineered Hilux that won the 2019 Dakar rally for Toyota Gazoo Racing South Africa and a replica of the Yaris WRC that already has three victories to its credit in this year’s FIA World Rally Championship.
Also on view will be the GR Supra VLN Edition that successfully completed its motorsport debut at this year’s Nürburgring 24-hour race, driven by a crew that included Toyota Motor Corporation president Akio Toyoda. The car will be shown complete with bodywork damage that’s a testament to the gruelling demands of the race at the legendary circuit in Germany.
The direct contribution made by Toyota Gazoo Racing to the development of Toyota’s road-going cars will also be celebrated at the Festival of Speed with the GR Supra, Yaris GRMN and Corolla GR Sport that was unveiled at the 2019 Geneva Motor Show.
In addition to Toyota’s official participation at the Festival of Speed, there will be a number of other historic, privately entered cars. These will include some of the greatest Celica world rally cars from the 1980s and ’90s, the AE86 Corolla rallying coupe and the Toyota TF108 Formula One car from 2008.
Learn more: Why does Toyota compete in motorsport?
