From Japanese roots to the world stage of racing
- Original Le Mans record-breaking racing cars
- Original Toyota 2000 GT and numerous motorsport classics
- Significant photo and film material from Toyota's motorsport history from TRD to Toyota Gazoo Racing
The new exhibition Racing & Innovation - a retrospective of Toyota motorsport opened at the MAC Museum Art & Cars on October 7, 2022 and - 65 years after the Japanese brand's debut in motorsport - is dedicated to the history of Toyota from its Japanese roots to the world stage of motorsport today.
Twelve famous vehicles - the road cars come from Toyota Germany from the Toyota Collection and the racing cars from the Toyota Gazoo Racing Europe (TGR-E) factory museum - embody the history of Toyota and its racing DNA. This gives motorsport fans a unique opportunity to get to know this automotive racing history up close.
Speed, innovation & tradition
The elegant Toyota 2000 GT sports car, which will be on display as one of the historic exhibits, already aroused desires at its debut at the Tokyo Motor Show in 1965. This now extremely rare, precious classic (only 351 examples were built in total) is still regarded by many fans as the start of Toyota motorsport history. Nowadays, the 2000 GT looks like an elegant sports car - but back then it was built as a high-performance vehicle. In its day, it could compete with Ferrari and co. Yet the 2000 GT was already Toyota's second sports car. The Sports 800 came before it.
The Toyota competition success story began much earlier. In 1967 - 65 years ago - Toyota was the first Japanese manufacturer to compete in the grueling Round Australia Rally with a standard Toyopet Crown Deluxe, which had been specially modified for use in this 19-day endurance race and promptly took third place among the foreign participants.
Inspired by this success, Toyota and its in-house Toyota Racing Development (TRD) now had the goal of demonstrating how the enthusiasm for motorsport - and the technical developments that resulted from it - would also fuel the Japanese automotive industry. After all, the "race on Sunday, sell on Monday" principle had already been working in the international automotive industry for many years.
The Toyota 2000 GT was indeed a record-breaking vehicle. As is well known, a modified 2000 GT set three new world speed records and 13 international class records in 1966, driving 78 consecutive hours around the Yatabe test track. It averaged over 206 km/h and covered an incredible 15,000 km in this time.
The celebration of Toyota's high-performance vehicles
Another jewel in the MAC Museum's display is the original TS050 Hybrid, chassis number 17-06, in which racing driver Kamui Kobayashi set the fastest ever lap of the Circuit de la Sarthe in 2017. This record time of 3:14.791 minutes corresponds to an average speed of 251.9 km/h.
The TS050 Hybrid achieved a hat-trick of victories at Le Mans from 2018 to 2020 with celebrities such as Fernando Alonso, Kazuki Nakajima and Sébastien Buemi at the wheel, making motorsport history at the world's most prestigious endurance race. It is complemented in the exhibition by the Toyota Celia GT4-ST165, in which Carlos Sainz won Toyota's first world rally championship title in 1990. The model won a total of 73 rallies between 1989 and 1992.
Other vehicles round off the exhibition Racing & Innovation - a retrospective of Toyota Motorsport, such as the Toyota Corolla WRC-AE111 (won in Monte Carlo in 1998) or the sensational GT ONE, which many racing fans will be familiar with from the video game "Gran Tourismo". The Toyota TF105 Formula 1 with Ralf Schumacher and Jarno Trulli had great performances in 79 races with five podium finishes and two pole positions. The Toyota YARIS WRC made its return to rallying in 2017 (after an 18-year break). The Lexus LFA super sports car is also legendary, with only 14 of them coming to Germany in its debut year of 2010.
Toyota has been active in motorsport worldwide since 1973. The team is currently active as the Toyota Gazoo Racing Team with the GR010 hypercar (successor to the Toyota TS050 Hybrid) in the FIA Endurance Championship and with a further four vehicles in the FIA World Rally Championship. (WRC). The team looks back with pride on its rich history of around 50 years on the world championship stage in motorsport, whose DNA and high-performance technology will be presented in the modern architectural setting of the MAC2 with dynamic photos and films.
Today, many of the achievements in high-performance technology from motorsport have found their way into the production of sports series vehicles. This is one of the reasons why Toyota is now one of the world's largest car manufacturers.
