Toyota’s new GR GT3 Concept looks mean as hell

The hardcore GRMN Yaris isn’t the only Toyota Gazoo Racing product to be revealed at the 2022 Tokyo Auto Salon. Check out those images above – that’s the stunning new GR GT3 Concept. 

Apparently it references “the next step in Toyota’s mission to make ever-better cars, bred from motorsport” and it very much looks like Toyota is set to launch a full GT3 racing programme.

It’s unusual for a GT3 racer to not be based on a production car of course (fingers and toes crossed for a mega Toyota grand tourer off the back of this) but GR president Koji Sato has said that a working prototype of the racer will be up and running by the end of the year.

Instead of a homologation special road car, it’s more likely Toyota will make a bit of money back by selling the GT3 to privateers, whilst also using some of the tech and experience gained from GT3 racing in future road cars. We can get on board with that. It seems like the perfect time to enter the GT3 world too, as the FIA World Endurance Championship and Le Mans 24 Hours will switch from GTE to GT3 regs from 2024 onwards. 

Toyota currently offers the Supra in GT4 spec and there are still a few Lexus RC F GT3s knocking about in the IMSA Sports Car Championship and the Japanese Super GT series, but making the GR GT3 Concept a reality would represent a huge investment in motorsports from Toyota. 

Hopefully we’ll get some more technical details and performance figures in due course…