Toyota’s Race, rally and road cars to show the breadth of its multi-path technologies at Goodwood FoS
Toyota will showcase the breadth of its multi-path technology strategy for cutting CO2 emissions and ultimately achieving carbon neutrality at the 2024 Goodwood Festival of Speed (11-14 July). Its line-up of race, rally, off-road and high-performance road cars will also demonstrate how its engagement in motorsport is feeding directly into its development of ever-better cars for the road.
Reigning World Champions TGR-WRT are bringing both the GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID and Rally2 WRC cars to the festival, which takes place in the grounds of historic Goodwood House in Sussex, England. The GR YARIS Rally2 has made its official debut in the second tier of the WRC this year, supplied by TGR to customer teams.
Toyota’s engagement in the top level of international motorsport continues to produce knowledge and expertise that is directly supporting its mission to develop ever-better cars for the road. At Goodwood, this will be witnessed in the new GR Yaris, a development of the segment-defining high-performance hatchback that offers more power, even sharper handling and option of a new eight-speed GAZOO Racing Direct Automatic transmission.
TGR World Champion drivers Sébastien Ogier and Kalle Rovanperä will be at the festival for the official hand-over of their self-named GR Yaris special edition models. These highly exclusive versions of the new GR Yaris benefit from personal input from the drivers to tune the handling to their personal preference, together with other personalised customisation features.
TGR-WRT’s Elfyn Evans is scheduled to attend the festival on the Friday and Saturday to demonstrate the GR YARIS Rally1 Hybrid’s pace and handling. Rovanperä is also scheduled to demonstrate his drifting skills on Goodwood’s hill climb in his specially engineered GR Supra.
Toyota is actively exploring the potential for internal combustion engines to run on alternative, carbon neutral fuels, a technology that could help preserve the sound and vibration that traditionally add to the excitement of motorsport driving. At Goodwood it will present the first European-built version of the new GR Yaris using hydrogen as a fuel.
The multi-technology theme extends to support vehicles. These will include the Hydrogen Fuel Cell Hilux Prototype, a version of the legendary pick-up that has been developed by a Toyota-led consortium in the UK to explore the potential for using fuel cell technology in light commercial vehicles. Service will also be provided by the Corolla Commercial, another British-made model that has brought the efficiency benefits of hybrid power to the van market.
TGR’s mighty GR DKR Hilux Evo T1U will be tackling all three of the festival’s routes – the hill climb, rally stage and off-road course. The team’s leading crews from the 2024 FIA World Rally-Raid Championship will be attending: Lucas Moraes and co-driver Armand Monleon and Seth Quintero with partner Dennis Zenz.
TGR-UK’s British Touring Car Championship Corolla will also be in action on the hill climb. The car has already achieved a number of podium finishes and a race win during this year’s BTCC series.
