When Toyota withdrew from the World Rally Championship at the end of the ’99 season with the Manufacturers’ title, it marked the end of an era.
The Japanese automaker had been a part of the WRC since its earliest days and had enjoyed plenty of success along the way, but with Formula 1 on its mind, Toyota’s factory-backed rallying efforts came to an abrupt end. That is, until this year…
When Akio Toyoda became president of the Toyota Motor Corporation back in 2009, he vowed to bring some real excitement back to the brand. Motorsport was always going to play a big part in that, and after working with World Rally Championship legend Tommi Mäkinen on a personal project, the next logical step was for Toyoda-san to recruit the four-time WRC world champion to head up Toyota Gazoo Racing and return Toyota to its rallying roots.
This excellent new 50-minute documentary takes a behind the scenes look at the 500 days leading up to Toyota’s triumphant WRC comeback after an 18-year hiatus.
Brad Lord
Instagram: speedhunters_brad
brad@speedhunters.com
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Hey, Toyota. Ya need to bring back the glory days of the Celica ST185!
Toyota:
Started From The Bottom Now we 'ere,
Started From the bottom now the whole crew ralley'ing here
makes me want to go out there and build something!
How to make WRC relevant: release a Focus RS/WRX fighter hot hatch. AWD, turbocharged, priced appropriately.
Doesn't need to be a hatch. Give us another Celica GT-Four.
now for toyota to make a road going AWD boosted Yaris to prove that they make "fun" cars