Toyota Racing Icons At The 2005 Goodwood Festival Of Speed

KEY POINTS

• The span of Toyota’s motor sport history to be represented with five race cars in action
• Olivier Panis with the Panasonic Toyota Racing TF105 Formula 1 car
• First visit to Goodwood of the 1965 Sports 800, the car which launched Toyota’s motor sport activities
• Juan Manuel Fangio II to drive his double championship-winning IMSA Toyota Eagle Mark III
• Ex-F1 star Ukyo Katayama to pilot the Le Mans lap-record breaking Toyota GT-One
• PlayStation for real as Katyama also to give mighty Castrol Tom’s Toyota Supra GT its European debut

Toyota is returning to the Goodwood Festival of Speed in June with a collection of rare and powerful machinery that spans its entire motor racing history. Crowds will be treated to the sights and sounds of five very different racing cars, from the diminutive Sports 800 of the 1960s to today’s mighty Formula 1 challenger.

For the fourth year in succession, Toyota will be representing the pinnacle of motor sport with the participation of the Panasonic Toyota Racing Formula 1 team. It is expected that for this year’s festival, the team will be able to bring the current TF105, the first grand prix car to be fully designed and engineered under the leadership of Mike Gascoyne, Technical Director Chassis.

The line-up also features the Toyota GT-One, which still holds the Le Mans race lap record it set in the 1999, together with the IMSA championship-winning Toyota Eagle Mark III and the awesome Castrol Tom’s Toyota Supra which won the 1997 All-Japan Grand Touring Car Championship.

It will be the Supra’s first visit to Goodwood, displaying the awesome horsepower that has made a favourite both with JGTC fans and, as a “virtual” racing car, been a top choice of players of the Sony PlayStation Gran Turismo computer game.

Although the Sports 800 and the mighty GT-One Le Mans car come from opposite ends of the performance spectrum, they demonstrate the exceptional progress Toyota made in sports car engineering and technology in the space of just 33 years. If it had not been for the Sports 800’s exceptional performance on track, claiming a clean 1-2-3 sweep in its class in the 1966 Japan Grand Prix, Toyota might never have pressed ahead with its motor sport ambitions.

Adding extra excitement and colour to Toyota’s contribution to the festival will be its squad of international drivers. Frenchman Olivier Panis from the Panasonic Toyota Racing team will be piloting the TF105 F1 car, joined by one of Japan’s grand prix legends, Ukyo Katayama, who will pilot both the Le Mans car and the Supra.

Also taking part will be Juan Manuel Fangio II, nephew of the Argentinian racing hero, who enjoyed great success in American sports car racing. He will be reunited with the IMSA car which carried him and Toyota to a famous double of driver and manufacturer championships in 1992 and 1993.

Apart from the TF105, all Toyota’s cars for the festival will be prepared by and shipped from Toyota Motor Corporation’s museum collection in Japan.

ENDS