here’s a video lurking in the darkest and most niche depths of the internet. Simply titled ‘The Touge’, it very casually depicts the driving talents of Keiichi Tsuchiya - otherwise known as the Drift King – as he hurls his vehicle around the demanding bends of the almost mythical Touge mountain roads in Japan. The two-part film was produced by Pluspy films in 1987 and distributed on tape across Japan; it instantly became a significant part of Japanese car culture, with Tsuchiya becoming a driving sensation.
But for me, watching it on YouTube many years later, it was Tsuchiya’s weapon of choice - an almost completely standard Toyota Corolla AE86 - that had an even greater effect. The sub-tonne, rear-drive JDM icon is the most unlikely of heroes. It doesn’t have masses of power or a fetishized performance brand behind it, but it shined light on a phenomenon that was criminally underappreciated: Toyota could be fun.
It is this same sentiment that the incredibly successful Toyota empire carries today with their Gazoo Racing brand. Toyota have always had a fun flare to their product, even if the bulk of the cars they make are mundane and unattractive. We can trace back nameplates like the Celica, Supra, MR2 and even the achingly beautiful 2000GT to see just what they were capable of when they put their minds to creating a product meant to convey the thrill of driving. They’ve also contested rallying, sports car and endurance racing, and even Formula One with varying degrees of success.
here’s a video lurking in the darkest and most niche depths of the internet. Simply titled ‘The Touge’, it very casually depicts the driving talents of Keiichi Tsuchiya - otherwise known as the Drift King – as he hurls his vehicle around the demanding bends of the almost mythical Touge mountain roads in Japan. The two-part film was produced by Pluspy films in 1987 and distributed on tape across Japan; it instantly became a significant part of Japanese car culture, with Tsuchiya becoming a driving sensation.
But for me, watching it on YouTube many years later, it was Tsuchiya’s weapon of choice - an almost completely standard Toyota Corolla AE86 - that had an even greater effect. The sub-tonne, rear-drive JDM icon is the most unlikely of heroes. It doesn’t have masses of power or a fetishized performance brand behind it, but it shined light on a phenomenon that was criminally underappreciated: Toyota could be fun.
It is this same sentiment that the incredibly successful Toyota empire carries today with their Gazoo Racing brand. Toyota have always had a fun flare to their product, even if the bulk of the cars they make are mundane and unattractive. We can trace back nameplates like the Celica, Supra, MR2 and even the achingly beautiful 2000GT to see just what they were capable of when they put their minds to creating a product meant to convey the thrill of driving. They’ve also contested rallying, sports car and endurance racing, and even Formula One with varying degrees of success.
T
By Finlay Ringer
Images via Toyota Media
The Story Behind Gazoo Racing
From Donnington to Dakar, it's almost impossible to escape Toyota's assault on all arenas of motorsport. But where did the rubber stamp come from for such excessive expenditure? Right from the top, as Finlay Ringer explains
They already had motorsports acclaim before Gazoo Racing, but it’s what the GR brand has done for Toyota in a relatively short timeframe, and how the brand was created that makes it one of the most exciting performance divisions to date. It is a product brewed from the enthusiast perspective, not that of faceless businesspeople sat around the boardroom table.
Its conception has been most closely associated with one man; he feels most comfortable when sitting behind a steering wheel with a lengthy stretch of road infront of him. His name is Akio Toyoda, he is the grandson of Toyota founder Kiichiro Toyoda, and he’s been President of Toyota Motor Corporation since 2009.
Aside from his managerial duties, Toyoda is the motorsports equivalent of an addict, as he can be seen poring over the world’s greatest performance cars, just as you or I might. The charismatic businessman has his own leadership style, which blends company and family heritage with his own interest in fun, driver-focussed vehicles. He, like us, rhapsodises about the joy of driving – Akio it the sort of person whom I imagine sits back in his office on the most monotone of days, staring longingly out of the window, just waiting for his next fix of adrenaline as he hurls his car up a rally stage or clips curbs at Fuji Speedway.
The story of both he and Gazoo Racing are wonderfully intertwined. It began when he was appointed to the Toyota board of directors in June 2000. He was soon introduced to a man called Hiromu Naruse, Toyota’s Chief Test Driver. He had been a wheelman for Toyota since 1963, with his testing record reading like a greatest hits record of their most coveted sportscars; he even developed the AE86 that would eventually appear in ‘The Touge’.
Naruse was fundamental to shaping Toyoda’s ethos; he encouraged the executive to have a more hands-on approach in the company by becoming a better driver. Akio cut his teeth on the roads of Japan and later on the Nürburgring, all under the tutelage of Naruse. It would be wrong to present this as purely self-serving, for Toyoda had minimal engineering experience and wanted to become a skilled driver because he needed a common language in which to communicate with his engineers.
They already had motorsports acclaim before Gazoo Racing, but it’s what the GR brand has done for Toyota in a relatively short timeframe, and how the brand was created that makes it one of the most exciting performance divisions to date. It is a product brewed from the enthusiast perspective, not that of faceless businesspeople sat around the boardroom table.
Its conception has been most closely associated with one man; he feels most comfortable when sitting behind a steering wheel with a lengthy stretch of road infront of him. His name is Akio Toyoda, he is the grandson of Toyota founder Kiichiro Toyoda, and he’s been President of Toyota Motor Corporation since 2009.
Aside from his managerial duties, Toyoda is the motorsports equivalent of an addict, as he can be seen poring over the world’s greatest performance cars, just as you or I might. The charismatic businessman has his own leadership style, which blends company and family heritage with his own interest in fun, driver-focussed vehicles. He, like us, rhapsodises about the joy of driving – Akio it the sort of person whom I imagine sits back in his office on the most monotone of days, staring longingly out of the window, just waiting for his next fix of adrenaline as he hurls his car up a rally stage or clips curbs at Fuji Speedway.
The story of both he and Gazoo Racing are wonderfully intertwined. It began when he was appointed to the Toyota board of directors in June 2000. He was soon introduced to a man called Hiromu Naruse, Toyota’s Chief Test Driver. He had been a wheelman for Toyota since 1963, with his testing record reading like a greatest hits record of their most coveted sportscars; he even developed the AE86 that would eventually appear in ‘The Touge’.
Naruse was fundamental to shaping Toyoda’s ethos; he encouraged the executive to have a more hands-on approach in the company by becoming a better driver. Akio cut his teeth on the roads of Japan and later on the Nürburgring, all under the tutelage of Naruse. It would be wrong to present this as purely self-serving, for Toyoda had minimal engineering experience and wanted to become a skilled driver because he needed a common language in which to communicate with his engineers.
"It became common practice for Gazoo to enter prototype cars in the N24, as they also developed the GT86 by entering it between 2012 and 2014, also scoring a third in class in 2019 with a prototype MK5 Supra, with Toyoda at the wheel"
This is just one of many examples where Toyoda and Naruse took the extra step that manufacturers conventionally wouldn’t take – they developed a penchant for perfection, in what Gazoo describes as the pursuit to “make ever-better cars”.
This became their creed. One of the most important tools in their development process was the Nürburgring, which Naruse and his team started using to test cars when he was refining the MK3 Supra. Nowadays, testing performance cars at the Nürburgring is almost expected, but Toyota have been doing it for decades. Toyoda and Naruse first worked together to test the MK4 Supra in the 1990s, later shifting attention to the Lexus LFA project.
It began as an R&D study in 2000, before morphing into a bespoke development programme under Lexus chief engineer Haruhiko Tanashi. Naruse obsessed over this new halo car, testing it with the same drive for flawlessness that he put into every endeavour. He enlisted Toyoda’s help in convincing the board to greenlight the project for production, which he duly did in 2002. It was the biggest sportscar project for the Toyota Motor Corporation since the 2000GT released in 1967, and it was part of a considered effort to regain Toyota’s enthusiast reputation.
The memories of the a fizzy, fun, exhilarating Toyota were beginning to fade by 2007, and the situation was dire. Toyota’s racy repertoire was part of a bygone era and, as revolutionary as products like the Prius were, the Toyota badge wasn’t going to win a round of supercar Top Trumps anytime soon. So, what was the logical thing to do? Toyoda decided on reinvigorating his company’s racing efforts, choosing to enter the gruelling Nürburgring 24 hours of that year.
Part of his responsibilities included overseeing the creation and supervision of gazoo.com. The website was a virtual storefront for Toyota goods and services and was designed to resell used cars. It was the first of its kind to use images to support adverts for cars. In fact, the Japanese word ‘gazo’ means ‘image’ when translated to English.
Seeing as Toyota wasn’t officially racing at that point, Toyoda entered two race-prepped Toyota Altezzas, both sponsored by gazoo.com. His exploits were kept under the radar, so much so that he raced under the pseudonym ‘Morizo’, taking the wheel alongside Naruse. Neither the eight drivers or the team of mechanics were racing veterans; the race was an inevitable struggle but both cars successfully ran for the full 24 hours, merely hinting at the success that was to come.