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25 May 2022
Toyota Gazoo Racing’s mighty GR DKR Hilux T1+, which conquered the Arabian desert dunes to win this year’s Dakar Rally, will be one of the motor sports stars of the 2022 Goodwood Festival of Speed.
The racing pick-up is appearing at the festival for the first time since winning the world’s toughest rally on its debut in January. In a rare festival “double” it will be appearing on both the Forest Stage and the Hillclimb, piloted by Toyota Gazoo Racing’s double-Dakar champions Nasser Al-Attiyah and co-driver Mathieu Baumel, who are also making their first Goodwood appearance.
It heads a rich list of Toyota models that will be in action in the festival, taking place in the grounds of Goodwood House in Sussex from 23 to 26 June. Together they will demonstrate how Toyota Gazoo Racing’s multi-championship-winning success in top-level race and rally competition is feeding directly into some of the world’s most sought-after sports cars for the road and inspiring fans around the world.
The Goodwood crowds will witness the Gazoo Racing “Power of Three” line-up with the all-new GR86 coupe, the new GR Supra with manual transmission (making its UK dynamic debut) and the universally acclaimed GR Yaris. These will be joined by the soon-to-be-launched, all-new bZ4X SUV, the first model in Toyota’s new bZ “Beyond Zero” sub-brand.
Toyota GR DKR Hilux T1+
The Toyota Gazoo Racing DKR Hilux T1+ stormed to victory on its first appearance on the Dakar Rally in January and is now competing in the FIA World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC), the new, seventh FIA world championship series. It’s based on the best-selling Hilux pick-up, but with key changes to meet the demands of off-road competition. The engine is a mid-mounted 3.0-litre twin-turbo V6, driving all four wheels, a unit that is also used with the new Toyota Land Cruiser 300 road-going model. For the race car it delivers 400bhp/298kW and around 600Nm of torque, performance that is in line with sporting regulations. Larger wheels and tyres (37-inch) are fitted and the suspension has greater travel to cope with covering rough terrain at high speed.
Nasser Al-Attiyah and Mathieu Baumel
Qatari driver Nasser Al-Attiyah and his French navigator Mathieu Baumel are among the elite of the world’s rally-raid pairings. In January this year they claimed their second Dakar Rally victory for Toyota Gazoo Racing, having previously won the event in 2019. For Al-Attiyah it was a fourth career Dakar win; he is also a five-time winner of the FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Rallies. Baumel has three Dakar victories to his name with Al-Attiyah and four Cross-Country World Cup titles.
All-new Toyota GR86
The all-new GR86 is the new entry point to Toyota’s GR range, bringing the rewards of sports-focused handling and performance to a wider audience. An evolution of the previous GT86, the model which signalled Toyota’s renewed commitment to sports car engineering, it retains the classic configuration of a front-mounted engine and rear wheel drive. The engine remains a high-revving, four-cylinder “boxer” unit, but with displacement increased to 2.4 litres to gain a significant increase in power and torque – 231bhp/172kW and 250Nm.
The GR86 made its world dynamic debut at the Festival of Speed in 2021; its return this year coincides with its UK market launch. Unprecedented customer demand saw the entire allocation of vehicles being sold within 90 minutes of going on sale.
New Toyota GR Supra 3.0 with manual transmission
The Toyota GR Supra returns to the Festival of Speed, the scene of its public dynamic debut in 2018, to mark another “first.” This time it is the introduction of a new manual transmission for the 3.0-litre version of the two-seat coupe. Toyota listened to enthusiasts’ requests for a manual gearbox and has responded with a new transmission designed specifically for the GR Supra’s 340 DIN hp/250 kW straight-six engine. Its addition to the range means that Toyota now offers all three of its global GR sports cars with manual transmission.
Toyota GR Yaris
The GR Yaris completes Toyota’s “Power of Three” GR line-up at the festival, another model that has proved a sell-out success in the UK. It was developed with support from Toyota Gazoo Racing’s World Rally Team and features a 257bhp turbocharged three-cylinder engine with GR Four all-wheel drive. With a bespoke platform and three-door body, this high-performance interpretation of Toyota’s best-selling European hatchback shares its bloodline with the GR Yaris Rally 1 which has already recorded three WRC victories this year.
As well as the road-going model, Goodwood will also welcome a gravel and asphalt rally competition-specification version of the car that’s competing in the new Toyota Gazoo Racing Iberian Cup, a new eight-round, one-make rally series that’s taking place across Spain and Portugal. Its launch this year is another example of how Toyota Gazoo Racing is also supporting grass-roots motor sport activities around the world.
Toyota bZ4X
The bZ4X is Toyota’s first all-new battery electric vehicle (BEV). It breaks new ground in launching the company’s bZ “Beyond Zero” sub-brand of zero emission models and in bringing genuine SUV off-road driving capability to the BEV market for the first time. Its quality and performance are founded on Toyota’s world-leading experience in electrified vehicle technology, a heritage that spans more than a quarter of a century. It is the first model to use a new eTNGA (Toyota New global Architecture) platform dedicated to electric vehicles and it pioneers the use of new technologies, including new-design electric eAxles, X-MODE with Grip Control all-wheel drive and a battery unit that is integrated into the chassis, entirely beneath the vehicle floor.
Kazuki Nakajima and Brendon Hartley
Principal members of Toyota Gazoo Racing will also be taking part in the Festival of Speed.
Kazuki Nakajima will be attending in his new role as Vice Chairman of Toyota Gazoo Racing Europe. Nakajima enjoyed a distinguished career as a professional racing driver spanning 19 seasons. His achievements include becoming the first Japanese driver to win an FIA World Championship, taking the World Endurance Championship title with Toyota Gazoo Racing in 2018 alongside Fernando Alonso and Sébastien Buemi. As a TGR driver he also became a three-time winner of the Le Mans 24 Hours.
New Zealand racer Brendon Hartley joined Toyota Gazoo Racing’s WEC team for the 2019-2020 season and continues to be a member of the No8 GR010 HYBRID crew, alongside Sébastien Buemi and Ryo Hirakawa. In 2020 he won Le Mans with Buemi and Nakajima and the following year he was a runner-up in the WEC drivers’ championship. Prior to joining TGR his career included Formula 1 competition with Toro Rosso and victory at Le Mans with Porsche in 2019.