Toyota Gt One
The Toyota GT-One (model code TS020) is a racing car initially developed for Group GT1 rules, but later adapted into an LMGTP car. It raced in the 1998 and 1999 24 Hours of Le Mans. Being a purpose-built racer in town clothes, the GT-One road car housed quite a few high-performance parts underneath the lightweight body.
Its engine, a 3.6-liter V8, used two massive turbochargers. The resultant TS020 (also known as the GT One) broke with convention in that it was a collaboration between Toyota Team Europe and Dallara. By contrast, most of Toyota's previous Prototype and GT racing cars had been the work of Dome or SARD.
Based in Cologne, TTE had, up until this point, been best known as Toyota's rally division. Ex-Peugeot designer, Andrea de Cortanze, was brought on. The Toyota GT-One road cars featured the same twin-turbo 3.6-liter V8 engine from the racer, which was an updated version of the engine Toyota ran in Group C racing in the early 1990s.
1998→1999 Toyota GT-One The Toyota TS020, better-known in Europe as the Toyota GT-One, is a pure-bred Le Mans car, created specifically to contest the world's most famous 24-hour race with no compromise in terms of design or engineering. The GT-One was built at Toyota Motorsport's headquarters in Cologne, the work of a team assembled specially for the task by Andre de Cortanze. De.
In late 1996, Toyota launched a programme focused solely on winning the 24 Hours of Mans. The GT-One was designed by Toyota Team Europe in Cologne under the guidance of André de Cortanze, the French engineer behind the Peugeot 905. With just one road-legal version produced to meet homologation requirements, she was in fact a prototype disguised as a GT.
The GT-One did make one more appearance, later that summer at the Fuji 1000 kilometres but even then it managed only to finish second to a Nissan. The project was over, Toyota had convinced themselves that Formula One would be the answer to all their problems - and we all know how that turned out, millions and millions of Yen later. Known internally as the TS020, the new Toyota racer was more commonly referred to as the GT-One.
The car was built around a carbon-fibre monocoque with an aluminium honeycomb core, which used the engine as a stressed member. While the chassis was designed by TMG, it was actually manufactured by specialists Dallara in Italy. The Toyota GT-One was a custom built racing car for GT and GTP classes, based on a modified MR2 platform and a turbocharged V8 engine.
It competed in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1998 and 1999, but failed to win due to technical issues and rule changes. Learn about the Toyota GT-One, a powerful and innovative car that competed in the LMP1 category of endurance racing. Discover its history, design, performance, and legacy in this comprehensive guide.