Toyota GR sports sub-brand launch imminent

Mercedes has AMG, BMW has M, Audi has RS, the Blue Oval has Ford Performance and, soon, Toyota will join them by introducing an entire family of performance models under the Gazoo Racing (GR) sports sub-brand.

The first Toyota GR model to be launched in Australia will be the born-again Toyota Supra coupe in the second half of next year, but the performance sub-brand could eventually grow to include new-generation Yaris and Corolla hot hatches, the next Toyota 86, a hot HiLux GR and a hypercar based on Toyota’s Le Mans-winning TS050 hybrid racer.

Speaking at this week’s Australian launch of the new Toyota Corolla hatch, the Japanese brand’s local sales and marketing chief Sean Hanley was reluctant to talk about specific models, but he confirmed the Toyota GR performance brand will be launched in Australia “in the near future”.

Hanley made it clear that Toyota GR would be Toyota Australia’s belated replacement for the TRD (Toyota Racing Development) performance brand, which is still active in North America but was unceremoniously axed in Australia in late 2008 after briefly being used to market higher-output supercharged V6 versions of the HiLux and Aurion.

“Any sort of sports performance car that Toyota brings out in the future will more than likely be branded under GR or Gazoo Racing brand, so not under what you would know as TRD,” he said.

“I won’t comment on what’s happening in the US because that’s a different market, but I will comment on Australia.

“We haven’t launched GR in Australia yet, but at some point in time that maybe something that we will do [laughs].

“So we don’t have an announcement on GR today but you never know at some point.”

Toyota Gazoo Racing is the Japanese car-maker’s motorsport and road car division in Japan and Europe, where it runs the company’s World Rally Championship and, in conjunction with Toyota Motorsport GmbH, its World Endurance Championship outfit.

Toyota also offers a range of GR-enhanced showroom models in Japan, including the 86, Vitz/Yaris, Prius, Aqua, Mark X, Noah and Voxy.

Toyota has already commenced a ‘soft launch’ of the GR brand Down Under, where Harry Bates’ Australian Rally Championship racer wears Gazoo Racing colours.

Toyota’s new Supra was revealed in racing form as the GR Supra Racing Concept (pictured) at this year’s Geneva motor show, and then in production form at the Goodwood Festival of Speed wearing GR-themed camouflage.

The production version is expected to make its global debut at the Detroit motor show in January, before being rolled out globally next year, including in Australia in the second half of 2019.

Asked whether the launches of the new Toyota Supra and the Toyota GR brand were linked, Hanley said: “In the near future we’ll be announcing some plans around what we intend to do with sports cars and with Gazoo.”

Hanley confirmed that if Toyota produced a higher-performance version of its top-selling HiLux, which is currently topped by the HiLux Rogue and Rugged X, it would be badged as a Toyota HiLux GR.

“It [GR] would include HiLux if we were to do a [hotter] HiLux,” he said.

“There’s a whole mass of opportunity for GR in Australia and in the foreseeable future it will become clear to everyone what GR means for us.”

Toyota Australia’s sales and marketing boss indicated the next-generation Toyota 86, which is also yet to be officially confirmed, would also be part of the Gazoo Racing family.

Although Hanley was cautious not to confirm a second-generation Toyota 86, he said the company’s decision to continue the Toyota 86 Racing Series alongside the Australian Supercars Championship for a further three years was a strong indication there will be a replacement for Toyota’s compact coupe.

“There’s no announcements on 86 at this point,” he said. “It’s an important car to our line-up. It’s expected to continue. We’ve just signed up for another three years with Supercars, so I hope it does.”

At the other end of the Toyota GR sports coupe line-up will be the road-legal hypercar based on the Le Mans-winning TS050 race car that’s been confirmed for production. As previewed by the wild GR Super Sport Concept, Toyota’s flagship performance model will be inspired by the car-maker’s 735kW 2.4-litre V6-powered LMP1 racer.

Far more accessible for Australians will be a hot hatch version of the new Corolla, which Hanley told us in April was a strong chance for Australia.

“It’s not impossible we could get a really nice Corolla or other type of car, and if that opportunity arose through our Gazoo Racing development we would put our hand up for it,” he said at the time.

“I’d like to see it as soon as possible, but in the next three years I wouldn’t rule out the possibility or probability of something coming under the Gazoo Racing brand.”

Speaking at this week’s 2018 Toyota Corolla hatch launch, however, chief engineer Yasushi Ueda went further, all but confirming a hotter version of the new Corolla to rival Volkswagen’s iconic Golf GTI.

“It’s not officially planned yet, [but we are] talking with Gazoo Racing and personally I would like to see it. Unfortunately, not from launch,” he said.

Ueda-san was fairly unequivocal about what badging the first Toyota Corolla hot hatch in generations will wear.

“We are discussing naming brand… currently it’s GR, but depends on market,” he said.

Asked if the relatively new 2.0-litre turbo-petrol four-cylinder that produces up to 180kW/350Nm in the Lexus IS, RC, GS, NX and RX would be a suitable engine for the Toyota Corolla GR, Ueda said: “Different platform – bigger – but has to be investigated.”

Whichever engine Toyota chooses for its Corolla hot hatch, Ueda-san agreed it would need to deliver at least 200kW to compete with direct rivals like the VW Golf GTI and Hyundai i30 N.

Slotting underneath the Corolla GR at the bottom of Australia’s Toyota GR model range should be a hot hatch version of the next-generation Yaris, which is expected to debut soon, to replace the existing Europe-only Yaris GRMN powered by a circa-155kW supercharged 1.8-litre four-cylinder engine.