Andrew Gilleland Toyota SVP: “This Entire Vehicle Was Designed To Be A Race Car First” GR GT Road Car 4.0L Twin-Turbo V8 641HP 627lb-ft Hybrid GR GT3 Race Car Drops Hybrid Keeps V8 Hot-V Turbos 80% Component Commonality vs 25% Lexus RCF GT3
According to The Drive, Toyota built its GR GT road car by starting from the race car, a reversal of how automakers typically approach homologation, and one of the most philosophically interesting engineering decisions in modern motorsport.
“This entire vehicle was designed to be a race car first,” Toyota Senior Vice President of Automotive Operations Andrew Gilleland declared in a video for IMSA’s YouTube channel. “So you look at the road car, you see all the aero bits and pieces. Those aren’t for show.”
The result is a level of race-to-road component sharing that is almost without precedent in modern production vehicles: the GR GT3 shares over 80 per cent of its components with the GR GT road car, compared to just 25 per cent commonality between Toyota’s current IMSA competitor, the Lexus RC F GT3, and its road counterpart.
The GR GT road car uses a new 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 hybrid targeting 641 horsepower and 627 lb-ft of torque. The GR GT3 race car ditches the hybrid system but keeps the same V8, with turbos mounted in a “hot-V” configuration and the engine positioned well back in the chassis for optimal weight distribution. The only meaningful visual differences between the two cars are the race car’s larger rear wing, additional front-fender vents, and bigger air openings for its higher cooling demands.
The last comparable programme where a race car was built first and reverse-engineered into a road car was the Ford GT, a project deliberately scoped for a single Le Mans victory in 2016. Toyota’s commitment to the GR GT is open-ended, and potentially far more consequential. The Lexus RC F GT3 already won the 2023 IMSA GTD Pro driver, team, and manufacturer championship with Vasser Sullivan Racing. The GR GT3 was built for bigger things.
Most manufacturers race what they sell. Toyota built something to sell what it races. Check out our previous coverage of motorsport on The Trusted Times.
