Tucked beneath one of the massive wind tunnels at Toyota’s European motorsports headquarters is a treasure trove of historic race cars and concepts.
A new video by XCarFilms takes a rare tour into Toyota Motorsport GmbH’s Koln, Germany garage. The collection includes everything from an early 1970s Toyota Celica WRC car campaigned by rally legend Ove Andersson to modern Le Mans Prototypes.
TMG began as a small rally team in the early 1970s, racing early rear-wheel-drive Celicas and Corollas barely differing from their production versions. By the late 1980s, TMG (then called Toyota Team Europe) was building dedicated machines were being built for WRC competition, specifically the turbocharged Celica GT-Fours.
Of particular note is the Toyota GT-One road car, the sole example built for homologation for Toyota’s 1998 Le Mans campaign. Also present is a prototype first-gen MR2 capable of 1000hp that sadly never saw competition due to the FIA’s cancellation of the Group S program.
TMG is a full engineering firm, capable of turning a car from an CAD design to reality. As such, they also build running Frankenstein concepts, such as a Lexus LS with an IS F motor tuned to 650hp, or a Porsche-killing Toyota (Scion) iQ. Watch the video below.
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