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.
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.
