Toyota is celebrating decades of sporting and engineering success with a red-hot line-up of race, rally and road cars at this month’s Goodwood Festival of Speed.
The Japanese brand returns to the Sussex extravaganza, from June 25-28, as global champions, heralding the car and drivers so dominant in the 2014 World Endurance Championship.
Toyota Gazoo Racing and their ex-F1 driver Anthony Davidson, plus fellow British squad member Mike Conway, will be sharing driving duties in this season’s TS040 Hybrid car, fresh from its challenge at the Le Mans 24 Hours.
Goodwood’s hill-climb course will also witness speed runs by three Camry race cars from the USA’s NASCAR series, representing the Red Bull Racing, Michael Waltrip Racing and Kyle Busch Motorsports teams.
Mike Skinner will also be muscling his NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Tacoma up the course and there will be a return for Rod Millen and his fiery Pikes Peak Celica.
Three decades of Toyota World Rally Championship history will be taking to Goodwood’s special stage, including runs by the Celica TE27, RA40, ST205, ST185 and the extreme TA64 Group B car, plus the WRC Corolla and John Midgley’s historic AE86.
Toyota 2000GT
Toyota’s GT86 will be a focus of attention in Goodwood’s Moving Motor Show, the curtain-raiser to the festival on June 25.
A fleet of six coupes will be available for customer drives, each finished in a retro racing livery celebrating Toyota sports and race cars of the past, including the Shelby 2000GT, the Castrol Celica GT-Four and the IMSA GTU Celica.
Lowered springs, retro-style alloys and a stainless steel exhaust system will add to the style and sound of the cars.
Anyone wanting a more full-blooded introduction to the handling performance of the GT86 can head for the Goodwood circuit where the GT86 Drift Experience will be back in action. Last year more than 300 people had the chance to get safely sideways.
The GT86 will be on display at the Toyota pavilion throughout the festival, joined by a Britcar racing version and for a virtual taste of what the GT86 can deliver, there will be a driving simulator.
Visitors can also have a close-up view of the classic 2000GT sports car from the 1960s, a 1980s Supra and, representing the future direction of Toyota design, the FT-1 Concept.
Toyota FT-1 Concept in action
