Toyota at the 2004 Goodwood Festival of Speed

• Return of the Panasonic Toyota Formula 1 team with drivers Olivier Panis and Cristiano da Matta
• First appearance of da Matta in his 2002 championship-winning Toyota-powered Champ Car
• Four-time World Rally Champion Juha Kankunnen to drive his 1993 championship-winning Group A Celica ST185
• First UK appearance of the 1968 Shelby-Toyota 2000GT SCCA sports car
• Le Mans winner Masanori Sekiya returns to drive the 1992 V10 Toyota TS010 sports car

Championship-winning race and rally cars and a UK debut for the rare and beautiful Toyota 2000GT SCCA sports car will distinguish Toyota’s third year at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.

Formula 1 stars Olivier Panis and Cristiano da Matta are returning to the festival with the Panasonic Toyota Racing TF103, the car which led last year’s extraordinary British Grand Prix. Their appearance at Goodwood will come just a few days before they are due to compete in the 2004 British Grand Prix at Silverstone.

Cristiano is also reunited with the Toyota-powered Lola Champ Car with which he won the 2002 CART FedEx Championship for Newman/Haas Racing. In one of the greatest seasons in the history of the American series, da Matta claimed seven race victories on his way to the drivers’ title.

Juha Kankunnen is back behind the wheel of the mighty Celica ST185, the car which carried him to his fourth World Rally Championship and which earned Toyota its first WRC manufacturers’ title in 1993. Kankunnen and the Group A Celica were an unmatched combination, claiming five victories en route to the ultimate honour.

The Toyota 2000GT SCCA (Sports Car Club of America) sports car represents Toyota’s earliest ventures into circuit racing. The car was not originally designed for competition, but in the mid-1960s gained a measure of success in Japanese endurance events. Seeking to develop its motor sport profile, Toyota commissioned Carroll Shelby to prepare the GT for entry in the 1968 SCCA season, where Scooter Patrick and Dave Jordan claimed second and third places in the drivers’ championship.

The 2000GT is being driven at Goodwood by its owner, American Bob Tkacik and Toyota Executive Vice President Dr Akihiko Saito.

The Toyota TS010, one of the most powerful sports cars in the FIA WSPC category of the 1990s, is in action, piloted by Le Mans winner Masanori Sekiya. The TS010 was equipped with a Formula 1-style 3.5-litre V10 engine that in Le Mans trim delivered around 600bhp and a top speed of 215mph. The car was destined never to win to the 24-hour race, but had the distinction of setting the race lap record in both 1992 and 1993.

The Toyota-Lola Champ Car, the Celica ST185 rally car and the TS010 sports car have been prepared by and shipped from the Toyota museum in Japan. Their restoration and maintenance, as well as providing a great spectacle for the public, also provides young Toyota engineers with the opportunity to appreciate and learn more about the company’s fine motor sport heritage.

The TF103 Formula 1 car is built and run by Toyota Motorsport, based in Cologne Germany.

ENDS