Supercars
Plus, Toyota’s hot new supercar – a new V8 supercar in 2025! – has spawned a hardcore GT3 version too…
Published: 05 Dec 2025
Well, after months of speculation and drip-feed, here they are: the Toyota Gazoo Racing GR GT and GT GT3 – Toyota’s plan to bring back serious driver’s cars into its lineup.
At last we have some detail – after a few murky videos and a Goodwood Festival of Speed appearance with both cars wrapped tighter than a boxer’s fists, here they both are in all their glory. And things are looking interesting. So interesting, we’re at the launch at Fuji Speedway in Japan to find out just what’s going on. Bear with us here, the jetlag is real.
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We’ll start with the GT. The roadcar is a long-bonneted GT with a cab-rear stance and two-seats, shades of Merc GT, Viper, SLS or … well, pretty much any other front-engined, rear-drive car of this nature already superformed into the profile. It’s quite big too, low and wide; 4,820mm long and a couple of metres across, standing at 1,195mm. It’s got both stance and presence, and it’s a lot lower than you think standing next to it.
In terms of build, it’s an aluminium structure with lots of CFRP (carbonfibre reinforced plastic) add-ons, so the bonnet, roof, door skins and boot lid are all lighter, the main bits are more cost-effective alloy, Toyota’s first go at this kind of architecture. And yes, Toyota is explicitly saying this car follows in the footsteps of the ‘60s 2000GT and LFA, despite there being a more specific – and related – LFA-style Lexus coming later, of which you can read more of here.
In fact, Toyota says it’s specifically tasked the older generation of engineers responsible for the LFA to involve themselves with the GT’s engineers to impart ‘the secret sauce of car-making’ to the new guys: this is following the lines of ‘Shikinen Sengu’, a tradition where a Shinto temple is periodically rebuilt. The kind of Japanese attitude that we absolutely love.
The standard road-going GT gets a bespoke 4.0-litre petrol V8 with twin-turbos (situated in the ‘hot-vee’ of the motor itself), supplemented by a mild-hybrid system with a single electric motor integrated into the transaxle bolted to the front of a brand new eight-speed automatic with paddles. There’s a wet-start clutch instead of a traditional torque-converter and a mechanical slippery differential, with that little e-motor filling in the momentary torque-loss during acceleration and gearchanges.
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We’re talking about max system output of 641bhp and 627lb ft, though Toyota interestingly has added ‘or greater’ in brackets after those numbers, suggesting headroom already built-in. Similarly the weight is stated at 1,750kg… ‘or lower’. Which fuels the flames of speculation if nothing else, because 1,750kg isn’t exactly a featherweight.
Performance figures are as yet unreleased, but expect sub-four to 62mph and 199mph. Although yet again, Toyota has mentioned the top speed may be greater than 199, so expect it to breach the double tonne in production trim. For the Top Trumps stats if nothing else. Suspension is double wishbones and coils all round, and the brakes are the usual dinner-plate Brembo carbon-ceramics as standard with Michelin Cup2s on lightweight wheels. Which is all pretty much par for the course.
But Toyota isn’t playing games here. The engine is mounted so far back that it’s likely to keep your knees warm, and there’s that rear-mounted gearbox and flattened driveline to give a tremendously low centre of gravity. Weight distribution is 45 per cent front, 55 per cent rear, and driver involvement, enjoyment and interaction seem high on Toyota’s list of priorities for this thing. Music to Top Gear’s ears. As is a V8 rumble.
As for the styling, that’s been created in conjunction with the aerodynamicists, rather than in spite of them. The profile and front three-quarter is eye-widening. Big cooling grilles up front, with massive inlets vented on the ventral surface of the bonnet with triangular NACA-style ducting towards the windscreen. Bit of LFA-vibes on those.
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There are big outlets aft of the front wheels for brake cooling and calming the front wheelarch turbulence, a super-short rear overhang, double-movement ducktail spoiler and quad exhausts in their own pods. It’s aggressive, flowing and very Japanese (an excellent thing), though when first revealed there’s a need to figure out what else it looks like. Take your pick; this is Sportscar Shape v.1, so you can draw comparisons to virtually anything else with this driveline layout. It’s excellent in the metal, superbly striking and an antidote to the slightly flowy, smoothed forms of something like Mercedes’ GT.
The interior is surprisingly subdued, but calmly effective-looking, with comfortable sports seats and a commanding view over the football field of a bonnet. There’s a digital dash with prominent shift lights and gear position indicators, a flat-bottomed wheel and a selection of switches plopped near the steering wheel. The transmission tunnel is thick and tall, terminating in the gear selector paddle itself and topped by a relatively modest touchscreen. This isn’t a luxo-flagship, and it shows – TGR seems more interested in the driving for this one.
But the exciting part is that this isn’t being seen as a limited-edition, £500k+ special. It’s a fast, daily-usable and track pliable fun car, rather than a 1,200bhp vapourware unicorn. A completely new one. In a world that seemed to have given up on V8s, we’re getting something increasingly rare; a new petrol sportscar. Rumours are that it stares directly into the eyes of the Mercedes GT (and therefore various Porsche products), so that’s 105 for a base GT to about £180k for a GT63. That’s still expensive, but do-able.
And if you’ve got even more money spare… then how about spending some of it going racing? Because the GR GT is also being launched as a full FIA-spec GT3 car at the same time (see below). Without livery, it looks like a monster. A naked monster. As ever with GT3, it’s an evolution of the basic road car, with a snowplough of a front splitter, more aggressive inlets and vents, canards and bonnet gaps. The sideskirts are industrial, the underfloor flat and the Venturi wide enough to encompass most of the rear of the car.
And then there’s that gooseneck rear spoiler, handy for picnics. Inside there’s a full cage, yoke wheel and the usual single-brain style motorsport computing and safety kit. But once you’ve seen it, it’s hard to shake the idea that a GR GT-R roadcar might possibly be available sometime in the future…
