Almost There - Toyota TS010 Group C & GT-One

Due to rule changes in the World Sportscar Championship for 1992, Toyota had to replace their previous series of Group C cars, known as C-V, which used a 3.6L twin-turbo V8. To fullfill the rules, a 3.5L naturally aspirated engine was needed. In 1991 Toyota completed their RV10 engines and began early testing.

A whole new chassis was also needed in order to better handle the newly developed V10. Former Tom Walkinshaw Racing designer Tony Southgate was designing the TS010, featuring a more aerodynamic and longer body than the old C-V series of sportscars. TS010 #002 would be finishded at the end of 1991, and Toyota decided to unveil the car at the final round of the 1991 WSC season at Autopolis. The car driven by Britons Geoff Lees and Andy Wallace and run by half English, half Japanese squad Tom’s, finished 6th overall. It was just 3 laps behind the winning Mercedes-Benz.

In the start of the 1992 season, Toyota’s main competitors came in the form of the Peugeot 905, which had been launched late in 1990. Toyota chose to run two cars while a third spare car would run in practice only to help the team prepare for the races. At Monza, Toyota made its first victory after the leading Peugeot crashed, with chassis #002 being staying with the few cars to finish the rainy race in the hands of Geoff Lees and Hitoshi Ogawa. However, TS010 #004 was involved in an accident earler in that race.

For 1993, both the World Sportscar Championship and All Japan Sports Prototype Championships were cancelled, which meant the TS010 had nowhere to race except at that year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans. For the race, another three chassis would be built for this race, numbered #007, #008, and #009. Future Formula One driver Eddie Irvine, Masanori Sekiya, and Toshio Suzuki would bring a TS010 to 4th place overall, behind the three of Peugeots. A second TS010 was on 8th place, while the third car failed to finish. The TS010 was officially retired and Toyota concentrated on their IMSA efforts in the United States.

Even though the TS010 never got a very sought victory at Le Mans, it was without doubt one of the fastest cars there, setting lap records in both 1992 and 1993. In 1992, the car of Pierre-Henri Raphael/Kenny Acheson/Masanori Sekiya finished second, giving Sekiya the honour of being the first Japanese driver to stand on the Le Mans podium. The of the TS010 also meant that Toyota had a design and technical expertise that promised progress towards entering Formula 1.

The V10 engine had five valves per cylinder, total horsepower output was over 700 horsepower, but for reliability purposes, it was de-tuned 600 horsepower. The engine was mated to a 6-speed manual gearbox. It was also able to tackle corners at 315 km/h.

For the next two races at Donington Park and Toyota’s home race at Suzuka Circuit, the TS010 was just able to finish behind the dominating Peugeots, each time having the second TS010 failing to finish. At the final round at Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours, both TS010s finished, taking 3rd and 4th place behind the Peugeots once again. When the seaon was over, Toyota would take 2nd in the teams championship, although they only managed to earn approximately half the points of what Peugeot won.

GT-One (TS020) race version.

At the end of the Group C era around 1994, Toyota decided to alter its plans in sports car racing by moving with a production based GT classes for 1995. Toyota then decided to approach this in two ways by using two different styles of car for competition. The first was a heavily modified Toyota Supra, referred to as the Supra LM, which would use a turbocharged 503E inline-4 from the MR2 222D. The second entry was a custom built car designed specifically to be a racing car, yet required a small number of production cars for sale in order to meet homologation regulations. This car was modified heavily from the Toyota MR2, and was known as the SARD MC8-R. The MC8-R would use a custom built Toyota turbo V8. While the Supra performed perfectly in 1995, the MC8-R would be superior for 1996. With development of high powered supercars for the GT classes at the time, a car similar to the MC8-R, which was intended as a race car first, would be better suited to continuing Toyota’s development of a GT car. Toyota announced that they would skip the 1997 24 Hours of Le Mans to be able to develop their next GT car for 1998.

Introduced 1998, the GT-One first appeared at the official testing days for the race held in May. Three GT-Ones appeared, setting the 2nd, 5th, and 10th best times, beating the custom built prototypes which were meant to be the superior class. For the race week itself, all three cars performed admirably in qualifying by continuing their quick pace, qualifying 2nd, 7th, and 8th, being beaten by Mercedes-Benz.
For the race itself, the #28 GT-One was in a high speed accident halfway through the race, which took it out of the competition. The two other entrants continued without problems, both remaining in the top 10. However, within the closing hours, the higher ranked #29 GT-One suffered from a gearbox failure while in competition for the race win. Toyota was left to take the 9th place in the race with the lone #27 entry, which ended the race 25 laps behind the winning Porsche 911 GT1.

Toyota then learned about a loophole which Mercedes-Benz had exploited. All GT based cars were required to have storage space for holding a standard size suitcase, in order for the car to be considered not only production based, but also usable by the public. Mercedes did this by putting a small cubby hole into an unused area underneath the rear bodywork, which meant it was not as easy to access as a normal trunk.

Two GT-One road cars were built, required in order for the race car to qualify as a road car-based Grand Tourer. They were painted red and fitted with a basic interior. One is at a museum in Japan, the other is displayed at Toyota Motorsport GmbH in Cologne, Germany.

The GT-One would race one more time, a single entrant appearing in the 1999 Le Mans Fuji 1000km. Although the race mostly included Japanese teams, leaving out most of the manufacturers that had competed at Le Mans. Toyota still had to compete against their rival Nissan, who also entered their R391. In the end the GT-One would fall short once again, finishing 2nd and only one lap behind the winning R391. However, Toyota won the LMGTP class (the R391 was an LMP), which would have given them automatic entry to 2000 24 Hours of Le Mans.

The GT-One program would not be continued into 2000, Toyota instead turning TTE into leaders of the new Toyota F1 team. This would mark the end of Toyota’s attempts at Le Mans which started in 1985, until they returned in 2012 with the TS030 Hybrid prototype LMP1 in the FIA World Endurance Championship.

Marlboro was the Toyota GT-One sponsor in 1999, although there was an anti-tobacco law in France which meant no Marlboro logos would appear on the car. In pictures of practice sessions, Marlboro barcodes across the front of the car can be seen, although these barcodes did not appear on the final race car. Other sponsors included Zent, Venture Safenet (#2 car) and Esso (#3 car).

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