TOYOTA GAZOO Racing WRT

[pantealex]

Attachment 1953

It´s only for Japanise market. I think they still have some weird laws there, like maximum speed 160kmh/100mph.

[Fast Eddie WRC]

So it turns out I was right that 25000 of the new 3-door, wide-bodied, Yaris GR needed to be built for homologation.

(But it was also true that only 2500 of this base car needed to be the 4WD version).

[tigerlily]

For homologation, it is required to sell 2,500 base cars in a consecutive 12-month and 25,000 cars of the entire car line.

GR Yaris is not considered to be the same vehicle series with normal Yaris because their body silhouettes are different. So Toyota has to sell 25,000 GR Yaris. That's why Toyota makes so many GR Yaris and sell them.

In Japan there are 3 lineups in GR Yaris series, RZ, RS and RC.

RZ 1.6L 3-Cylinder Turbocharged direct Injection engine, 6MT, 4WD
RS 1.5L 3-Cylinder Toyota Dynamic Force engine, 10CVT, FF
RC same engine with RZ, 6MT, 4WD, 30kg lighter than RZ. Base car for the competitions.

Pre-order is only for RZ and Toyota has already gotten 6,000 orders.

In Japan, 98.5% of cars are automatic and a few people can drive a manual transmission car, so no wonder that Toyota sells a CVT model.

[Fast Eddie WRC]

TGR technical director Tom Fowler interview:

https://www.wrc.com/en/archive/podcasts/

[Fast Eddie WRC]

Tommi Mäkinen on the 2021 GR Yaris:

"It is clear that the end of the Toyota GR Yaris WRC is due to the coronavirus . Keep in mind that any vehicle that competes in the World Rally Championship needs 25,000 units to comply with the FIA homologation . It is difficult to answer the question of whether Toyota is now in a position to manufacture this vehicle at such volume.

Along these lines, Mäkinen added: "It has been a great disappointment for everyone , especially for all the people who have worked in the early days of the car and who have seen its full potential in the WRC . Everyone wanted to see how far the car could go. Despite this situation, everyone has been able to see that it was a car for a single year and that, therefore, the hybrid regulations of 2022 are very close and it will not be without work . We have to focus on that too because in a situation similar to the one we have now, the development of the 2022 car cannot be stopped. ”

https://dirtfish.com/rally/wrc/podca...nland-testing/ Makinen part is 20 minutes in...

[AnttiL]

https://dirtfish.com/rally/wrc/why-t...mpression=true

Toyota was testing driver ergonomics of the Yaris GR last week, that’s why it was running as a second car

[Fast Eddie WRC]

https://dirtfish.com/rally/wrc/why-t...mpression=true

Toyota was testing driver ergonomics of the Yaris GR last week, that’s why it was running as a second car

They also confirmed the GR Yaris will be the shape of their 2022 car, not an SUV like the C-HR.

[mknight]

So Hyundai upped their game. (looking at performance of all 3 cars, not just Tanak).

Now what will Toyota do for next year? Hastily restart the development of Yaris GR? Probably not enough time for that. Hope that small upgrades will be enough?

[Eli]

So Hyundai upped their game. (looking at performance of all 3 cars, not just Tanak).

Now what will Toyota do for next year? Hastily restart the development of Yaris GR? Probably not enough time for that. Hope that small upgrades will be enough?

Sure but they (Hyundai) still need three consistent drivers for all 10-12 rounds, the rotation system using is nice but Neuville will need to be in his game each event alongside Tanak if they want to claim another title...but this is way way way to early to speculate for next year, we haven't even finished the first event of this (renewed) year.

[AnttiL]

https://toyotagazooracing.com/releas...r/0922-01.html

TOYOTA MOTOR CORPORATION ANNOUNCES APPOINTMENT OF TOMMI MÄKINEN AS A MOTORSPORT ADVISOR
September 22, 2020
Tommi Mäkinen* will be appointed as a Motorsport Advisor to Toyota Motor Corporation (Toyota) from January 2021, with the aim of further advancing the manufacturing of ever-better cars.


Behind the appointment is Tommi Mäkinen’s impressive contribution to the supercharged re-ignition of Toyota's World Rally operations from 2017. Tommi Mäkinen and his team of professionals at Tommi Mäkinen Racing Oy helped Toyota to develop a highly competitive rally car and also built the team, TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team, to run it at the highest level of world rallying, the FIA World Rally Championship. Already in 2018, the second year after their return, Toyota earned the manufacturers’ world championship title, and in 2019 they won the drivers’ and co-drivers’ world championship titles.

With this expertise, Toyota is sure Tommi Mäkinen is capable of contributing in even wider fields of motorsports, such as the development of motorsports-bred GR vehicles, strategic planning of motorsport activities, and driver talent development. Appointing him as a motorsport advisor of Toyota Motor Corporation, the brand is looking forward to his advice on strategy formulation and organizational operations.

Consequently, the WRC project built by Tommi Mäkinen Racing Oy - TOYOTA GAZOO Racing WRT and the design and development of World Rally Cars - will be managed directly by Toyota. From 2021 on the WRC operations will be run by TOYOTA GAZOO Racing Europe GmbH, the Toyota group company responsible for the core functions of Toyota motorsports in Europe. We plan to benefit from Tommi Mäkinen’s resolution, learning from his world-leading vehicle development know-how, cultivated at TMR, in order to link this to specific business development. We will also further strengthen our systems, including the acceleration of practical training of human resources. Still, TGR WRT continues its activities both in Finland and Estonia as it has been, using the existing human resources and some facilities originating from TMR.

QUOTES
Tommi Mäkinen, managing director and owner of Tommi Mäkinen Racing Oy

The goal of the Toyota WRC-project was to re-start the world rallying operation effectively with the flexible organization which only a small company can achieve.

I am happy to say that this goal has now been reached and it is time for me to move on to new challenges with Toyota. I want to thank Akio Toyoda for trusting me with this project and supporting us all the way to reach the goals we set together. I am looking forward to continue the work with him, designing the future of Toyota in motorsports.

We are happy that as planned Toyota now decided to acquire the WRC-operations we have built together and I am also very happy of the way Toyota provides our experts with a steady home and future as TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team. It is also important to me that operations will still stay in Jyväskylä and Tallinn, while the TOYOTA GAZOO Racing Europe takes the team under its wing.

Akio Toyoda, President of Toyota Motor Corporation

It was only after I met Tommi that I was able to decide on Toyota’s return to the WRC.
It is because of his support that we are able to win at the WRC. And by leveraging his expertise, we were able to create the GR Yaris, a 4WD sports car.

Going forward, he will be our motorsports advisor.
In addition to providing expert advice on how to win races, as he has been doing, we expect him to provide a broad range of advice so that Toyota can produce ever-better cars.

Even after the appointment of this role, the fact that he will continue to be my driving instructor will not change.
“Tommi, let’s drive together again!”