Toyota Australia’s performance game plan
Are we staring down the barrel of a brand new performance car brand? Why you need to pay attention to Gazoo RacingOPINION
Since the demise of Holden and its HSV hot rod arm in the latter half of the 2010s, Australia’s long and storied culture of high-performance vehicles has withered on the vine.
Sure, there has been a few fast Ford Mustangs on forecourts in recent years, but after a golden era where FPV nee Tickford fought bloody arms race battles with its cross-town rivals HSV on a yearly basis, there’s been a real lull in the fast car wars.
But now Toyota, in the face of strengthening winds in the competitive space from brands outside the norm, plans to bring back the biff to its line-up in the form of its own performance brand, Gazoo Racing.
It’s not the first time that Toyota has tried to add some oomph to a steady but hardly scintillating diet of sensible sheet metal. The TRD Aurion was actually a half-decent four-door, although the supercharged HiLux TRD was a… bit more wayward, let’s say.
Now, though, the local arm has the support of Toyota HQ when it comes to a fast car agenda; the Gazoo Racing brand is the brainchild of former Toyota head man Akio Toyoda, who in his new director’s position has more time to spend on pushing his performance car barrow.
As a whole – and there will be many rolled eyes at this assertion – Toyota has not and will not embrace battery-electric vehicles with the same vim and vigour of many of its rivals. This explains the emphasis on forming an unashamedly petrol-powered vision of a fun motoring future; in ten years, Gazoo Racing may be one of the last games in town when it comes to being able to buy something fast, affordable and petrol-powered.
Plans to flesh out the catalogue are well under way; despite the recent end of the fifth-generation Supra, there will be another, and it will be joined at the prom by other, equally interesting siblings.
Rumours of the return of Celica and MR2 won’t go away – and if the Supra project gets its own new platform, then Toyota will definitely look at the best way to amortise that cost across other vehicles.
Look at the recent Goodwood Festival of Speed, where Toyota ran not one, but two super high-performance cars in camo livery up the famous hillclimb. Look at its World Endurance Championship campaign, its World Rally Championship outfit, its pending GT3 program and now its own Australian Supercars team. The GR marketing push is strong, vibrant and global, and it shows no sign of slowing down.
How far can the GR brand filter down the Toyota product order?
“Well, who's to say we won't have a GR RAV4 in the future?” mused Toyota Australia boss Sean Hanley at the recent launch of the GR Supra Supercar.
“Who's to say we won't have GR variants of whatever models in the future?”
The GR Supra program is slated to run for a minimum of five years in the local Supercars championship – and there are plans afoot to reinvigorate the series with further incursions into overseas markets, particularly in Asia.
Toyota doesn’t do things by halves, and entering Supercars after resisting its call for 20-plus years hasn’t been done on a whim.
“We wanted to cater for what is a definite performance car market in Australia that despite popular opinion, despite EVs and everything else is not actually going away,” asserts Hanley.
So, watch this space… the name may not roll off the tongue as easily as HSV, but Gazoo Racing is planning to make just as big an impact on performance cars in Australia.
Related: How will Supercars help Toyota sell RAV4s?
Related: 2026 Toyota RAV4 detailed for Oz
Related: Top Toyota Australia exec hints at GR Supra return
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