Toyota Brings Passion And Performance To The 2012 Goodwood Festival Of Speed

Click here for an image gallery of all cars present at Goodwood Festival of Speed 2012

• UK debut of Toyota’s first hybrid power Le Mans car, the TS030 HYBRID
• GAZOO Racing’s LFA and Toyota 86 (as the GT86 is known in Japan), class-winning heroes of the 2012 Nurburgring 24 Hours
• Focus on the new Toyota GT86 on the weekend it is officially launched in the UK
• First opportunity to see the GRMN SPORTS FR Concept, GAZOO Racing’s 316bhp twin-charged interpretation of the GT86
• All Toyota’s world championship-winning cars in action on the festival rally stage

Toyota celebrates past glories and present-day success with a superb array of race, rally and road cars at the 2012 Goodwood Festival of Speed.

This year’s event coincides with the official UK launch of the new GT86 sports coupe, which can be seen in different guises – from standard road-going versions to race track and concept specials – on display and in action on the Goodwood hillclimb.

The Festival of Speed marks the first UK appearance of Toyota Racing’s TS030 HYBRID sports car, following its international competition debut at the Le Mans 24 Hours. Staying with the endurance racing theme, GAZOO Racing is bringing its Lexus LFA and Toyota 86, which were both class winners in this year’s Nürburgring 24 Hours race.

GAZOO Racing is also revealing its SPORTS FR Concept, a “twincharged” version of GT86 that adds both a supercharger and turbocharger to the flat-four engine, boosting power to 315bhp. The hike in power is matched by revised suspension, bigger brakes and a full sports body kit. Much smaller, but equally performance-focused, the latest GRMN supercharged iQ will be taking on the hill challenge. A true pocket-rocket, this 130bhp iQ was unveiled at the Tokyo Auto Salon at the beginning of the year and will be going on sale – in very small numbers – in Japan this summer.

Frank Wrathall returns to the festival with his 2012-specification Dynojet Racing Toyota Avensis touring car. The young driver, whose participation chimes perfectly with this year’s festival theme of Young Guns – Born to Win, was voted Rookie of the Year by fans of the British Touring Car Championship and has already posted a podium finish this year in his second BTCC season.

Completing Toyota’s official line-up of cars running on the hillclimb are a further GT86, carrying a full complement of TRD styling and performance accessories, and a road-going version of the Lexus LFA supercar. Further excitement will be provided by Rod Millen, who will back at the festival in his extraordinary Pikes Peak Tacoma, a past record holder at the Colorado mountain track.

The rally stage at the Festival of Speed is hosting the greatest cars from Toyota’s sporting history. The line-up includes all the world championship Celica models, including the extraordinary Group B TA64 “King of Africa” which claimed a clean sweep of Safari and Ivory Coast rallies between 1984 and 1986. The Celica ST185 and ST 205 GT-Four cars are joined by the last works Toyota, the WRC Corolla, and by Midgley Motorsport’s rare TE27 Corolla Levin from the 1970s.

Toyota’s current success in rally-raid competition is represented by the Hilux Dakar, a V8-powered Hilux double-cab that competed in this year’s Dakar Rally in South America. The three Toyotas taking part all finished I the top 10 in their class, with Giniel de Villiers, one of the world’s most successful rally-raid drivers, taking third place.

Toyota offers further attractions at its new festival pavilion, with GT86 taking pride of place. It is shown alongside the 2000GT, Toyota’s original 1960s sports coupe, which inspired the GT86’s designers. The presentation will also celebrate the sporting success of the Corolla GT (AE86) of the 1980s, with Toyota’s replica of the car which Chris Hodgetts drove to back-to-back BTCC titles in 1986 and 1987.