Toyota’s Gazoo Racing Museum is a genuine race car museum in its purest form. It features an unrivalled collection, from ‘70s rallying to modern WRC, from F1 to Le Mans, with a few road-legal projects and lots of memorabilia.
Toyota Motorsport’s factory Museum is a must-see for all Toyota fans. It is next to the Toyota Collection, exhibited at the HQ of Toyota Germany. The Cologne site is a few hours away from the Louwman Museum, another pilgrimage site for the Japanese brand and one of the best car museums in the world.
The outskirts of Cologne host Toyota Germany HQ, home to the above-mentioned Collection. The Collection is accessible but not like other factory museums, as Toyota grants free access to the Collection once a month. The first Saturday of each month is dedicated to a particular theme, usually a model or a model-series (you can see this year’s calendar under the link to their Facebook account).
On seldom occasions, a few selected (and fast 😊 ) applicants get a tour at the Gazoo Museum, and this is where we got our inspiration for another trip to Cologne. Toyota’s busy racing schedule prevented us from combining our visit with an Essen event, but our trip was worth the wait. Finally, we were welcomed by a vastly knowledgeable guide, who showed us around and answered many detailed questions and shared even better stories (thanks again, Britta!).
They usually keep the cars closed (yet yet fully functional), but they allowed us to have a peek inside 🙂. We appreciated the gesture and restricted ourselves to a strict no-contact rule, just hovering hands 😊.
Toyota may not have the same racing pedigree as some noble European brands, but the strive for victories well preceded its dominance as a mass car producer. They reached to top in several disciplines (Rallye, Endurance) and competed in others (Formula 1, Indycar NASCAR).
The Cologne site hosts the oldest sports team of Toyota that led the brand to the top of rallying several times, managed their F1 project and is now running Toyota’s successful endurance programme.
Accordingly, the Gazoo Museum keeps many milestone race cars from rallying, endurance and F1. And a lot of memorabilia too, like trophies and cups, and of course lots of photos and illustrations.
The Gazoo Racing Museum is nothing like a fancy factory car museum: it has no showroom for new cars and is not even operated on a permanent basis. Yet its design is genuinely authentic; nothing works better as a background than a fully operational wind tunnel towering over race cars.
There is minor but efficient decoration, but the most essential part is the grid line before each car identifying it and giving away the most important facts and specs.
Other museums might offer more, but this feels spot on. That is the most appropriate decoration for a race museum we ever saw.
The cars are grouped as per motorsport discipline, and the first cars by the entrance recall the early decades of rallying.
The first formation, Toyota Team Europe (TTE) dates back to 1972, when the Japanese manufacturer decided to team up with Ove Andersson, winner of the previous year’s Monte Carlo Rally.
They entered a Toyota Celica in the RAC Rally, with Andersson Motorsport finishing ninth. This is not the last time you see this name (including the 1979 Toyota Celica Liftback 2000 LT RA40 that bears his name as the driver).
The beginnings are commemorated by a Toyota Celica coupe 1600 GT (TA22), the very first car raced by TTE.
As the joint venture proved durable, the UK-based workshop moved to Andersson’s home in Uppsala a year later. The operations soon gained momentum Europe-wide, and thus a Toyota Team Europe was established in Brussels in 1975. In the very same year, Hannu Mikkola won TTE’s first rally, the 1000 Lakes Rally.
In 1979 TTE started moving to a new site in Cologne, Germany, which gradually expanded, and the third car of the first line-up is from this period. The Celica Twincam Turbo (model code TA64) was developed under FIA’s infamous Group B specifications, allowing considerable freedom for constructors.
The car made its debut on the 1983 1,000 lakes Rally and was driven by Juha Kankkunen to a sixth-place finish. In its next race, Björn Waldegård took victory in the 1984 Ivory Coast Rally. Toyota did not go for an all-out Group B Rallye monster, but the sturdiness paired with a lightweight rear-wheel-drive layout brought success on rugged terrain. Victories at three Safari and three Ivory Coast Rallies earned the car the nickname King of Africa.
The rear-wheel-drive Celica could not unleash the full potential enshrined in the Group B rulebook, but FIA was already working on a new, no holds barred Group S specification. Unfortunately, a tragic accident led to the cancellation of Group B in 1986, and the same fate awaited the planned Group S. In this Group, restrictions were even more relaxed, and only 10 cars (would) had to be built. By the time the Group S category was scrapped, a few prototypes were built (notably also by Lancia), and the most promising one was the Toyota 222D.
The back 222D is a true automotive unicorn, even its existence was a secret until a few years ago. For this car, Toyota departed from the trusted Celica platform that turned front-wheel-drive in the meantime. TTE opted for the MR2 as a basis, though the 222D shared little with the production car, apart from the factory AW11 chassis. You won’t find the road version’s pop-up headlights in the black monster or anything from the interior.
The 1.8 four-cylinder factory engine was replaced with the 2.2 straight-four from Toyota’s Le Mans car, peaking over 760PS. According to reports, 11 cars were built, and only three survived, including this black monster residing in Cologne. We recall this car making headlines a few years ago, resurfacing at various petrolhead events. Indeed, seeing it up close now was quite a spectacle.
In 1987, new premises were inaugurated, bearing some of Toyota’s greatest successes. In particular, the Toyota Celica GT-Four gave driver’s titles to Juha Kankkunen, Carlos Sainz and Didier Auriol. The next three Celicas represent this period starting with the (you know which cigarette company) red Celica ST165 that earned Sainz a title in 1990.
In our books, the Castrol liveried ST185-based Toyota Celica GT-Fours were some of the most spectacular Rallye cars of all time. Though this might have to do with the fact that the road car was also one of the best pocket rockets of the ’90s.
These cars caught up a lot with the racing world, thanks to the Group A regulations. You could buy a four-wheel drive turbo Celica right off the price list and convert it to a rally car yourself. Those were the days…
In 1993 the Toyota Motor Corporation stepped up its game and fully bought TTE. The company renamed them Toyota Motorsport making it Toyota’s prime racing entity with a 300-person international staff. The ST185s bought the constructor’s title for Toyota in the 1993 and 1994 seasons, with Kankunnen and Auriol taking the driver’s title each (and bronze for the other). At this point, you might think, the only way is up, but it’s not how it went down.
In fact, TTE was soon slapped with the biggest scandal in racing history, getting a ban for the 1995 season followed by a voluntary absence in 1996. Cars based on the Celica ST205 participated without official factory support and still soldiered on with notable results.
In 1997, Toyota was back with a vengeance, and a brand-new Corolla was developed under the new WRC formula. The Corolla WRC’s first full season was in 1998, with Carlos Sainz and Didier Auriol behind the wheel. The team won the season, and Sainz finished second overall with WRC’s most heart-breaking (non-) finish of all time. In 1999, the team finally took the constructor’s title for the third time. And that was it. TTE withdrew from the constructor’s championship, although the cars were successfully competing in national championships.
Leaving the championship was a wise decision. In the past few decades, the key to the championship title was to have a driver with the first name “Sébastien” 😊. In the past 18 years, Loeb and Ogier took 17 drivers’ titles.
From here onward, the Rallye project went into hiatus, as the guys in Cologne focussed on endurance and Formula 1, which will be presented with the remaining cars in the following article. Toyota’s next Rally adventure was developed no longer in Cologne but moved to Finland.
Thanks to none other than the Corolla WRC’s archrival Tommi Makinen, who is running all the ponies now under the hood of the Yaris WRCs, at Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT. And these cars took the constructor’s championship title in the past three years (also dominating 2022).
