I was in the local Toyota dealer today ordering some new bolts and other fasteners for my ST205 refurbish. While I was waiting for the parts dept. to go through the extensive list on the EPC printout I got talking to another customer who was in for some Yaris parts. Turned out he worked for Toyota GB in their Press Office and was due to head over to TMG Cologne next week for an update on their future plans. He volunteered the information that the chances of Toyota building a WRC spec rally car for the new regs (due 2017?) were zero. They are concentrating on the GT86-CS3 customer rally car which requires that 2,500 be built so it can be homologated for FIA R3 competition. I asked him why Toyota didn't use their World Endurance Championship win more in marketing. He said the whole WEC effort is running on a fraction of the Audi and Porsche budget and funds were limited. He said now the head of Toyota is a motorsport enthusiast they have more sporting models coming through the pipeline. Watch this space
P.S. Apparently he was driving the very first Lexus imported into the UK in 1989 and now owned by Toyota GB.

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Don
GT4DC Chairman
1994 Toyota Celica GT-Four ST205WRC JDM 269bhp @ 0.9bar
1994 Toyota Celica GT-Four Special GT 590bhp @ 1.8bar
1989 Van Diemen RF88/89 Formula Ford 1600
2008 Nissan Patrol GU 3.0L ZD30DDTi 154bhp

There was an article earlier this year where toyota promised at least 3 performance based models in their lineup. I do not know if the GT86 counts as one of those three though. We know that the BMW joint effort sports car is one of them. The rumor is the FT1 will be the chassis, but all expect the concept to be watered down considerably when brought to market.

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Coldiron (Cold - Iron)
1992 Celica Gt4 RC Conv. St205 swap

http://www.noritoy.com

Talking about BMW another rumour is that Sard will be going back to the Le Mans 24 Hours competing in the LMP1-L class (non-hybrid) using a Judd engine badged as a Toyota. The Judd is based on a BMW block....intriguing.

Sard have a long history of involvement at Le Mans with Toyota in Group C and later with highly modified Supra and MR2 chassis.

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Don
GT4DC Chairman
1994 Toyota Celica GT-Four ST205WRC JDM 269bhp @ 0.9bar
1994 Toyota Celica GT-Four Special GT 590bhp @ 1.8bar
1989 Van Diemen RF88/89 Formula Ford 1600
2008 Nissan Patrol GU 3.0L ZD30DDTi 154bhp