Gazoo Racing Working on New GS F and New Supra

Toyota's motorsports-focused division has several exciting high-performance projects in the works, including a new Supra and GS F.

By Brett Foote - November 8, 2017

 

I hope they are able to shed off 200-300 lb off the GS-F and bump the HP up, so it can compete with the other cars in its Class.

 

Adding power is easy but shedding 300lbs would be a bit more tricky unless you just gut it out.

 

so, l-tuned, trd, f-sport, f, and now GR... how many sub-brands does lexus need to come and go?

 

In the United States GR vehicles and products will be marketed under the existing Toyota Racing Development sub-brand.

 

To a lesser extent, Sport Design and X-Package were also available in the early and mid 2000s

 

Actually I wonder if all is well at Lexus.
They seem awfully quiet lately. Normally their comms would trickle some info to keep fans warm but even that’s thinner now?

 

I wonder if Gazoo is working on nothing more than body kits? Would fit the mold of TRD and Toyota's rather lackluster performance niche. In fact, that's probably exactly what it is.

Or it could be nothing at all; a lot of talk with nothing to show.

 

The name "Gazoo" sounds horrible and will not translate well to a regular US buyer.
They should stick with TRD for Toyota and Fsport for Lexus.

 

That is exactly what will happen. In the USA all Gazoo products (both aftermarket parts and niche production models such as the Supra) will be marketed under the existing TRD moniker for Toyotas and F-Sport for Lexus. The only one that has been commented on by anyone officially involved with Toyota is the TRD branding for the USA.

 

I am curious to know their project priorities as well. Hopefully we'll see some high(er) performance items move out of R&D and into manufacturing and production

 

The only thing worthwhile is engine development. But other than a tack-on supercharger, I can ever recall Toyota actually producing a performance engine for any of their cars that was under the exclusive TRD moniker that was different than their normal, slow mundane engines. It was all the same I think.

That’s why I said Gazoo is probably hard at work producing factory body kits, sway bars and fancy seat emblems, but absolutely nothing that will make it go faster...

All the cars will get the same really slow, but thermally efficient, dynamic force engines, or BMW or Yamaha engine...

 

Gazoo Racing has worked on a few true performance Toyotas already, albeit only now with a car of this caliber. Previously they released an 86 GRMN with no extra horsepower but a lot of suspension work and an $11k 6-piston track braking system but much more notably they did a 100-car production run of Toyota Mark X rear-drive sport sedans with the same 3.5L V6 with the optional supercharger making 300hp+, Torsen limited slip differential and, exclusive to the GRMN model only, a 6-speed manual transmission. That Mark X supercharged GRMN 6-speed M/T was sold only in Japan.

Apart from the ridiculously overpriced brake kit for the 86 both these cars were parts bin efforts but this division hasn't been around that long yet. Give them time. They are supposed to be getting into more of their own models in the future.

There is also a Europe-only limited production Yaris GRMN which is a FWD, 6MT 200hp supercharged hot hatch.

In this article it is explained that the more tame bolt-on stuff will appear in "GR" models while "GRMN" models will be full bore performance vehicles engineered that way from the start. Or at least that is what is claimed.

But again, we won't see the GR or GRMN names in the U.S. because the same products will come to us with the familiar TRD badging.

https://paultan.org/2017/09/19/toyot...r-coming-soon/

 

The fact that TRD and STi have made ZERO effort to support the 86/BRZ aftermarket in the US gives me no confidence with whats in store for the Supra.
The positive is if has a BMW inline 6 and the ECU is shared then at least you will have support from the BMW side like MPerformance, Dinan etc but i doubt Toyota will allow them to do anything for the Supra version.