After months of teaser clips and Goodwood cameos, Toyota has finally unboxed the GR GT.
The brief? Put proper driver’s cars back into the Toyota stable.
This is a front-engined, rear-drive grand tourer with the stance of a sprinter in starting blocks and the promise of old-school theatre with new-age smarts. Jet-lag be damned; this one was worth the red-eye.
The GR GT is a classic cab-rear two-seater, low and wide at 4,820mm nose to tail and just 1,195mm tall. You’ll spot echoes of other front-mid heroes (SLS, Viper, AMG GT), but the silhouette is distinctly, confidently Japanese.
Under the skin it’s Toyota’s first crack at this architecture: an aluminium structure with CFRP add-ons. Bonnet, roof, door skins and boot lid go on a diet; the main tub stays cost-sensible alloy.
Toyota is unapologetic about the GR GT’s spiritual anchors. More than a name-drop, the company has literally seconded veterans from the LFA programme to mentor the new team, a Shinto-inspired passing-of-the-torch (Shikinen Sengu) where craft is rebuilt, not merely remembered.
The road car gets a bespoke 4.0-litre, twin-turbo V8 mounted so far back it may warm your knees. The snails sit in a hot-vee; a mild-hybrid motor is integrated into the rear transaxle ahead of a brand-new eight-speed auto with paddles.
There’s a wet-start clutch in place of a torque converter and a mechanical limited-slip diff. That little e-motor fills the torque troughs during launches and shifts, so the thrust reads as one clean sentence, not a string of commas.
Toyota quotes 641 bhp and 850 Nm, with a cheeky “or greater” in parentheses. Weight is 1,750 kg. Performance numbers aren’t pinned down yet, but sub-4.0s to 100km/h and 320km/h are the markers.
45:55 front-to-rear distribution should read neutral at the limit. Double wishbones and coils all round, Brembo carbon-ceramics the size of dinner plates, Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2s on lightweight wheels. An ingredients list that says “track-capable without a chiropractor”.
The cabin is purpose, not parlour. Comfortable sports seats, a flat-bottomed wheel, a clear digital cluster with bold shift lights, and a bank of tactile switches where your fingers naturally fall.
The transmission tunnel is a proper spine with a stout selector; the touchscreen is modest, not a cinema. Toyota Gazoo Racing wants you driving, not doom-scrolling.
GT3: the naked monster in the next garage
If your wallet (and appetite) runs hotter, Toyota’s bringing the GR GT GT3 to homologated life alongside the road car. Strip the paint and it’s pure menace: a plough-blade splitter, yawning inlets, canards, bonnet vents you could post a letter through. Industrial side-skirts, a flat underfloor, and a Venturi that eats most of the rear.
Perched above: a gooseneck rear wing sturdy enough to double as a picnic bench. Inside it’s FIA-spec monkishness, with a full cage, yoke wheel, the usual single-brain race electronics.
See it once and you’ll start day-dreaming about a future GR GT-R for the road. Don’t say you weren’t warned.
Toyota has built a car with stance, soul and a sense of humour. Environmentally minded? Within reason. Driver-minded? Absolutely.
This is Toyota’s new north star for driving pleasure, and the compass is pointing to very interesting roads indeed.
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