The Toyota GT-One (Road Legal Version) from 1998
Discussion
Hey guys,
While since I've posted! I've been busy with the car at least, plenty of updates to come on that anyway! Delay with delivery of CL breaks and new wheels means I'm missing a few track events over here. I hope to get to my local track (Annau du Rhin) and the Nurburgring before the season is out though!
So a couple of months back I was at TMG HQ in Cologne where they let me take a few pictures of their facilities and what they have lurking underneath the wind tunnels. Although I have plenty of pictures of the Motorsport museum, I wanted to share this with you first. I was awestruck when I seen this in the flesh! I have seen the Porsche 911 GT1 in their museum in Stuttgart, but the GT-One is just so much more menacing when you see it in person.
http://www.autolifers.com/limelight-1-of-1-toyota-...
I had a good 40 minutes to shoot the car and could have spent all day drinking in all its lines, such a crazy looking machine!
I'll throw up some pictures of the rest of the museum which had things like Sainz's celica and corolla, a dozen or so F1 chassis, Le Mans racers and a couple of other special projects tucked away in the corner!
But this big red monster stole the show for me.
Afterwards, it got me thinking about something. Although we have GT variants of most sports cars out there,
do you think there would be space for GT1 style homologation in top-tier endurance racing??
Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy my pictures as much as I did taking them!
Ciarán
While since I've posted! I've been busy with the car at least, plenty of updates to come on that anyway! Delay with delivery of CL breaks and new wheels means I'm missing a few track events over here. I hope to get to my local track (Annau du Rhin) and the Nurburgring before the season is out though!
So a couple of months back I was at TMG HQ in Cologne where they let me take a few pictures of their facilities and what they have lurking underneath the wind tunnels. Although I have plenty of pictures of the Motorsport museum, I wanted to share this with you first. I was awestruck when I seen this in the flesh! I have seen the Porsche 911 GT1 in their museum in Stuttgart, but the GT-One is just so much more menacing when you see it in person.
http://www.autolifers.com/limelight-1-of-1-toyota-...
I had a good 40 minutes to shoot the car and could have spent all day drinking in all its lines, such a crazy looking machine!
I'll throw up some pictures of the rest of the museum which had things like Sainz's celica and corolla, a dozen or so F1 chassis, Le Mans racers and a couple of other special projects tucked away in the corner!
But this big red monster stole the show for me.
Afterwards, it got me thinking about something. Although we have GT variants of most sports cars out there,
do you think there would be space for GT1 style homologation in top-tier endurance racing??
Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy my pictures as much as I did taking them!
Ciarán
Great photos and thank you for sharing.
I've never seen the interior of the road car so it's amazing to see it, can't believe (well, can) how spartan it is. I love the story about them convincing the ACO that the fuel tank counted as luggage space when empty, shows just how determined they were to bend the rules.
Massive shame it's never seen the road, would be nice for them to take it out on the autobahn once in a while. I bet it's probably not in any road going condition at the minute anyway.
Rumour has it there's another in their museum in Japan but I've never seen photos of it.
Wiki says this:
TTE also developed the only two GT-One road cars built, required in order for the race car to qualify as a road car-based Grand Tourer. They were painted red and fitted with a basic interior. One was put into a museum in Japan, the other is displayed at Toyota Motorsport GmbH in Cologne, Germany.
But then the chassis listed at the bottom of the article says this:
A total of seven GT-Ones were built over the two years of the program. The first six were built in 1998, while the final chassis was built in 1999.
LM801 - Developmental prototype, never raced.
LM802 - 1998 24 Hours of Le Mans #29, later a test car.
LM803 - Road legal version of the GT-One, on display in Europe.
LM804 - 1998 24 Hours of Le Mans #28, 1999 24 Hours of Le Mans #3, later on display in Japan.
LM805 - 1998 24 Hours of Le Mans #27, later a test car.
LM806 - 1999 24 Hours of Le Mans #2. (Destroy)
LM907 - 1999 24 Hours of Le Mans #1.
So unless it was the developmental prototype turned into a road car and in Japan I don't see how it could be.
How did you get access?
I've never seen the interior of the road car so it's amazing to see it, can't believe (well, can) how spartan it is. I love the story about them convincing the ACO that the fuel tank counted as luggage space when empty, shows just how determined they were to bend the rules.
Massive shame it's never seen the road, would be nice for them to take it out on the autobahn once in a while. I bet it's probably not in any road going condition at the minute anyway.
Rumour has it there's another in their museum in Japan but I've never seen photos of it.
Wiki says this:
TTE also developed the only two GT-One road cars built, required in order for the race car to qualify as a road car-based Grand Tourer. They were painted red and fitted with a basic interior. One was put into a museum in Japan, the other is displayed at Toyota Motorsport GmbH in Cologne, Germany.
But then the chassis listed at the bottom of the article says this:
A total of seven GT-Ones were built over the two years of the program. The first six were built in 1998, while the final chassis was built in 1999.
LM801 - Developmental prototype, never raced.
LM802 - 1998 24 Hours of Le Mans #29, later a test car.
LM803 - Road legal version of the GT-One, on display in Europe.
LM804 - 1998 24 Hours of Le Mans #28, 1999 24 Hours of Le Mans #3, later on display in Japan.
LM805 - 1998 24 Hours of Le Mans #27, later a test car.
LM806 - 1999 24 Hours of Le Mans #2. (Destroy)
LM907 - 1999 24 Hours of Le Mans #1.
So unless it was the developmental prototype turned into a road car and in Japan I don't see how it could be.
How did you get access?
Edited by F1GTRUeno on Thursday 21st August 01:45
I think that Wiki isn't 100% correct as I was told from the Toyota PR guy that this was the only chassis that they turned into a road version! As you can see it was very sparse indeed! I had to laugh when I had seen the cigarette lighter, I couldn't imagine lighting a cigarette trying to drive that thing around!!
I was in TMG to get a tour of the facilities so I could write a few articles. I've added a link to the museum tour so you can have a look at the rest of the cars on display!
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
I was in TMG to get a tour of the facilities so I could write a few articles. I've added a link to the museum tour so you can have a look at the rest of the cars on display!
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
Gassing Station | General Motorsport | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff