The announcement last week of the GAZOO Racing (GR) brand sitting alongside Toyota and Lexus has a significance that may not be recognised for some time. It’s a third brand in New Zealand for the global car manufacturer, one which has been evolving for several decades. As it is central to Toyota, GR is also a key to their long-term commitment to NZ motorsport.
It was 2005 that the inaugural Toyota Racing Series got underway, a championship that has now evolved into the FIA Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Trophy, a four round 15-race series held over consecutive weekends attracting up and coming international single seater talent.
Since then, we’ve seen the launch of the Toyota 86 Championship in 2018 and FIA recognition with the Toyota Racing Series gaining Super Licence Points needed for an F1 entry. A year later the rebranding of Toyota Racing NZ to Toyota GAZOO Racing then in 2020 the series becoming an official FIA Formula Regional Championship right through to 2026 and the latest Gen2 FR car, the GRF-70 launched in time for the 2027 season.
Through all this, the GR brand has been slowly building with the launch of the GR Yaris in 2020, the Toyota 86 Champs becoming the GR86 Championship, a GT development path for Kiwi drivers with the GR Supra GT4 program while in 2027 we will see the GR Yaris Rally Cup, one-make rallying series set to debut.
The GR brand must be good for the future of NZ motorsport as it gives confidence to Toyota NZ’s long-term and future commitment.
Now ‘GR’ is appearing on a number of available road vehicles that anyone can purchase from their local dealership – Yaris, Corolla, RAV4, Corolla Cross, C-HR, Land Cruiser – as part of the ‘From track to road, One GR Philosophy.’ For those with older Toyota models, they have GR Heritage Parts, plus there are now a large number of GR bolt-on parts available from any Toyota parts department.
GAZOO Racing was originally founded in 2007 by now Toyota Chairman, Akio Toyoda, from a belief that challenge drives improvement. A belief that motorsport creates better cars.
At that time, he was involved in the iconic 24 Hours of Nürburgring for the purpose of endurance racing. Test it until it broke, understand why, fix or repair and grow to be better. It was about the challenge and how to grow and create better cars.
GAZOO meaning image or garage, where it happens. It conjures up the image of meeting in an intimate space (a garage), a gathering of like-minded people (engineers, mechanics, car enthusiasts) to tweak, adjust and improve. The result is to build better cars.
This concept under-pins the GR badge on a Toyota. It is a commitment to motorsport, Toyota’s testing ground to make better cars.
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