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Toyota Brings the Heat to Goodwood with Three New Sports Cars

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At this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed, the official theme is “The Rivals – Epic Racing Duels.” But no manufacturer seems to embody that spirit more completely than Toyota. While much of the industry continues its relentless march toward electrification, Toyota’s GAZOO Racing division is arriving in West Sussex with three dramatically different performance machines that all share the same philosophy: competition creates better cars.

Leading the charge are the all-new GR GT, the GR GT3 race car, and the Lexus LFA Concept, each representing a different chapter in Toyota’s evolving performance story. Together, they signal that the company isn’t abandoning driving enthusiasts—it may actually be doubling down.

The centerpiece is the GR GT, a road-going coupe that wears its racing pedigree proudly. Under its long hood sits an all-new 4.0-liter twin-turbocharged V8 paired with a single-motor hybrid system, a combination that immediately grabs attention in an era increasingly dominated by downsized four-cylinders and silent EVs. Toyota says the development focused not just on outright power, but on fundamentals that matter on both road and track: a low center of gravity, reduced weight, exceptional chassis rigidity, and carefully honed aerodynamics.

If the GR GT is the road car born from racing, the GR GT3 strips away nearly every compromise. Sharing its basic architecture with the GR GT, the GT3 machine has been engineered specifically for international competition, prioritizing outright pace, aerodynamic efficiency, and approachable performance for professional and customer racing teams alike. More importantly, it continues Toyota’s increasingly successful philosophy of developing race cars and production cars side by side, allowing lessons learned at the limit to flow in both directions.

That same philosophy extends beyond internal combustion.

Making its first close-up public appearance is the Lexus LFA Concept, an electric supercar that looks beyond today’s battery-powered performance cars while paying homage to one of the greatest Japanese supercars ever built. Rather than simply chasing acceleration figures, Lexus says the concept is designed to create an emotional connection between driver and machine—a fitting tribute to the original LFA’s legendary character. While technical details remain under wraps, the concept suggests Lexus still believes performance isn’t measured solely by numbers on a specification sheet.

What’s particularly interesting is that Toyota views these three vehicles not as separate projects, but as members of the same family. They all stem from a development philosophy championed by Chairman Akio Toyoda—better known to enthusiasts by his racing alter ego, Morizo—who has long insisted that the fastest way to build great road cars is to race them first.

The company even draws inspiration from an unlikely source: Shikinen Sengu, an ancient Japanese tradition in which Shinto shrines are dismantled and rebuilt once every generation. The purpose isn’t replacement, but preservation—passing craftsmanship from one generation to the next while continually refining it. Toyota believes sports cars deserve the same treatment.

Goodwood provides the ideal proving ground.

Unlike traditional motor shows where cars remain frozen under bright lights, the Festival of Speed demands action. The famous hill climb—with its steep elevation changes, narrow confines, and unforgiving barriers—offers one of the world’s best demonstrations of acceleration, balance, aerodynamic stability, and driver confidence. The GR GT and GR GT3 will make their first public dynamic appearances in Europe without camouflage, while the Lexus LFA Concept will be displayed in the Supercar Paddock.

Toyota’s racing credentials won’t be confined to prototypes, either.

GAZOO Racing is bringing several machines that have already proven themselves in competition, including the GR Yaris Rally1, fresh from multiple World Rally Championship successes, alongside the DKR GR Hilux rally-raid racer. Behind the wheel will be an all-star lineup featuring nine-time World Rally Champion Sébastien Ogier, current WRC points leader Elfyn Evans, Takamoto Katsuta, Oliver Solberg, Sami Pajari, and Dakar ace Henk Lategan.

Meanwhile, Toyota’s endurance racing dominance will also be on display through the No. 7 GR010 HYBRID, the Le Mans-winning prototype that recently secured Toyota’s sixth victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans while propelling the manufacturer to the top of the FIA World Endurance Championship standings.

Of course, Goodwood isn’t just about celebrating race cars—it’s about showing how racing influences the cars ordinary enthusiasts can actually buy. That’s where the GR Yaris Aero Performance enters the picture, showcasing the latest aerodynamic developments for Toyota’s already acclaimed hot hatch. Sharing the spotlight is the all-new RAV4 GR Sport, a plug-in hybrid SUV whose suspension, chassis tuning, and visual upgrades borrow directly from the company’s performance division.

Taken individually, each of these debuts tells an interesting story. Together, they paint a much bigger picture.

At a time when many automakers seem eager to leave performance heritage behind, Toyota continues to argue that motorsport remains its greatest engineering laboratory. Whether powered by a twin-turbo V8 hybrid, built exclusively for the racetrack, or driven entirely by electricity, the company’s latest generation of sports cars all share one defining characteristic: they exist because someone wanted to go faster than the competition.

That may be the most fitting tribute imaginable to this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed.

Source: Toyota

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Toyota’s Wildest Corolla Yet: The GRMN Corolla Takes Aim at the Nürburgring

Toyota’s hottest hatch just got hotter—and this time, it’s wearing the badge that means business.

For years, enthusiasts begged Toyota to build a truly uncompromising version of the GR Corolla. Not a slightly quicker special edition. Not a trim package. A genuine, motorsports-bred machine capable of standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the world’s most focused hot hatches.

Toyota listened.

Meet the new GRMN Corolla, the most extreme interpretation yet of Toyota’s rally-inspired all-wheel-drive hatchback. Developed at Germany’s notorious Nürburgring Nordschleife and refined through endurance racing in Japan’s Super Taikyu Series, the GRMN Corolla isn’t merely a faster GR Corolla—it’s the car Toyota always wanted to build once the engineers were allowed to ignore practicality.

And yes, that means the rear seats are gone.

Built Where Weaknesses Go to Die

The Nürburgring has become an automotive cliché. Every performance car claims to have been tested there. But Toyota’s engineers insist the Green Hell wasn’t just a proving ground for the GRMN Corolla—it was its teacher.

The project began with a simple challenge from Toyota Chairman and master driver Akio Toyoda, better known in enthusiast circles as Morizo.

“If it’s going to bear the GRMN name, it needs to be a car that can duly handle the Nürburgring.”

That’s easier said than done. The Nordschleife combines high-speed sweepers, violent compressions, blind crests, and rough pavement unlike almost anything found on conventional test tracks. Weaknesses that remain hidden elsewhere become glaringly obvious there.

Toyota’s development team attacked those weaknesses one by one. The result is a car designed to remain composed and communicative even when driven flat out over surfaces that would unsettle lesser performance cars.

According to Toyota, the goal wasn’t simply to create more grip or more speed. It was to achieve a level of car-and-driver connection that makes the machine feel like an extension of the person behind the wheel.

Race-Car Aerodynamics Without the Pretend

The GRMN’s aerodynamic package isn’t decorative.

Every vent, wing, and spoiler has roots in competition, drawing directly from Toyota’s hydrogen-powered GR Corolla race car that competes in Japan’s Super Taikyu endurance championship.

The hood duct improves airflow management. Fender vents relieve pressure buildup inside the wheel wells. Front side spoilers improve stability, while the rear wing—perhaps the most obvious visual cue separating the GRMN from lesser Corollas—features a five-position adjustment mechanism.

Toyota engineers reportedly experimented with wing-angle changes in one-degree increments during Nürburgring testing sessions with professional drivers before settling on the final specification.

That level of obsessive detail tells you everything you need to know about this project.

Suspension Engineered for the World’s Toughest Track

Making a car fast around the Nürburgring requires more than stiff springs and sticky tires.

The circuit’s brutal elevation changes create suspension movements far beyond what most racetracks generate, forcing Toyota’s engineers to rethink nearly every aspect of the GR Corolla’s chassis setup.

The GRMN receives exclusive monotube dampers front and rear, complete with rebound springs designed to improve inner-wheel traction during hard cornering. Engineers spent countless laps fine-tuning bump-stop characteristics and damper stroke lengths down to the millimeter.

The payoff comes in the form of increased stability over rough surfaces and improved confidence during high-speed direction changes.

Helping matters are wider tires. The GRMN rides on 245/40ZR18 Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 rubber, adding 10 millimeters of width compared with the standard GR Corolla. That’s serious track-focused equipment for a car that still technically qualifies as a compact hatchback.

More Torque, More Urgency

The familiar turbocharged 1.6-liter three-cylinder remains under the hood, but Toyota wasn’t content to leave it alone.

Lessons learned from the company’s hydrogen-engine racing program and endurance competition efforts helped engineers extract additional performance, pushing peak torque to 306 pound-feet (415 Nm)—an increase of 11 lb-ft over the standard car.

The gains aren’t concentrated at the top end. Instead, Toyota focused on strengthening the engine’s midrange between 3,600 and 4,800 rpm, the sweet spot most frequently used when powering out of corners.

To ensure consistent performance during prolonged track abuse, the GRMN adds an intercooler spray system alongside the improved intake cooling solutions already introduced on the latest GR Corolla.

The result should be a powertrain that feels punchier, more responsive, and more resilient when subjected to repeated full-throttle punishment.

Every Kilogram Matters

Weight reduction remains one of the oldest tricks in the performance-car handbook, and Toyota has embraced it wholeheartedly.

The rear seats have been eliminated entirely.

Combined with other measures, total weight drops by approximately 66 pounds (30 kilograms) compared with the standard GR Corolla. That may not sound transformative on paper, but every pound removed improves acceleration, braking, and cornering performance simultaneously.

In an era when performance cars often become heavier with each new generation, Toyota’s willingness to sacrifice practicality for speed feels refreshingly old-school.

A Cockpit for Drivers, Not Commuters

Open the door and it’s immediately clear this Corolla was designed with lap times in mind.

The centerpiece is a GRMN-exclusive full-bucket driver’s seat inspired by Toyota’s Super Taikyu race cars. Constructed from glass-fiber-reinforced plastic, it offers greater lateral support while helping reduce weight.

Toyota even optimized the seat dimensions to improve clutch operation—a detail that suggests somebody involved in this project genuinely enjoys driving manuals.

The rest of the cabin follows the same philosophy. Flocked surfaces on the instrument panel and A-pillars reduce reflections, while carbon-fiber trim produced by Toyota’s Motomachi plant adds visual drama. Red accents, a serialized GRMN identification plaque, and Morizo’s signature complete the package.

It’s purposeful rather than luxurious—a cockpit built around concentration.

The Ultimate Expression of the GR Corolla

Perhaps the most interesting thing about the GRMN Corolla isn’t that it exists.

It’s that Toyota appears to have developed it the old-fashioned way.

Not through marketing clinics. Not through spreadsheet optimization. Not through benchmark studies.

Instead, Toyota engineers took a promising hot hatch to one of the toughest racetracks on Earth, discovered its weaknesses, and spent years fixing them.

The GRMN Corolla represents the purest expression yet of Toyota’s modern performance philosophy—one shaped by racing, informed by endurance competition, and relentlessly refined by Morizo’s belief that sports cars should make drivers smile.

Production will be limited, with Japan, North America, and Australia expected to receive the majority of allocations when sales begin in 2027.

That’s unfortunate for everyone else.

Because judging by the specifications, Toyota may have just built one of the most focused front-engine hot hatches of the decade.

Source: Toyota

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2027 Toyota Hilux: Japan’s Legendary Pickup Sharpens Its Edge

The world’s toughest Toyota gets a high-tech makeover, proving that durability and modern refinement don’t have to be mutually exclusive.

For more than half a century, the Toyota Hilux has earned a reputation that borders on myth. It’s the truck that has crossed deserts, climbed mountains, survived abuse that would cripple lesser machines, and built a loyal following in more than 190 countries. While much of the automotive world chases electrification and digital gimmickry, the Hilux has remained stubbornly focused on the fundamentals: durability, capability, and reliability.

Now Toyota is giving its iconic pickup a significant update for the Japanese market, and while the formula remains familiar, the execution feels distinctly modern.

The new Hilux arrives with sharper styling, upgraded technology, enhanced safety systems, and a refined driving experience, all while preserving the rugged ladder-frame DNA that made it a global success story in the first place.

Cyber SUMO: A Bold New Face

Toyota designers describe the new Hilux’s styling philosophy as “Cyber SUMO,” a phrase that sounds like it was generated by an AI after binge-watching Japanese sci-fi movies. Yet somehow, it fits.

The front end draws inspiration from the explosive opening charge of a sumo match, with broad fenders, a massive grille, and sculpted bumpers creating a stance that appears planted and powerful. The design is considerably more aggressive than before without sacrificing the purposeful look buyers expect from a working pickup.

The standard Z model keeps things relatively clean, while the new Z Adventure turns the attitude up several notches. Additional lower-bumper trim, a prominent sports bar, and tougher visual details give the truck a more off-road-focused personality.

It’s the kind of styling update that doesn’t reinvent the Hilux but successfully modernizes it for buyers who want their pickup to look as adventurous as the lifestyle they’re trying to project.

A Cabin That Finally Feels Contemporary

Historically, the Hilux’s interior has been a lesson in functionality over flair. The new model doesn’t abandon that philosophy, but it does add a healthy dose of sophistication.

A new horizontal dashboard layout improves visibility during off-road driving, while a 12.3-inch center display sits prominently atop the dash. Toyota has wisely separated critical driving controls from infotainment functions, ensuring that drivers aren’t forced to hunt through touchscreen menus while navigating rough terrain.

The broad center console reinforces the truck’s robust character, and overall material quality appears improved compared with previous generations.

Most importantly, the cabin finally feels like it belongs in the same decade as Toyota’s latest SUVs.

Built for Work, Ready for Adventure

Despite growing lifestyle aspirations, Toyota hasn’t forgotten that the Hilux is fundamentally a truck.

Measuring 209.6 inches long, 74.2 inches wide, and 73.4 inches tall, the midsize pickup continues to offer a practical cargo bed separate from the passenger compartment. Payload capacity remains an impressive 1,100 pounds (500 kilograms), while a flat load floor improves versatility.

Toyota has also focused on usability. Integrated deck steps positioned behind the rear wheel arches make accessing cargo easier, and the tailgate height has been optimized to simplify loading and unloading.

The result is a pickup that can haul camping gear on weekends and tackle demanding work duties during the week without compromise.

Tougher Underneath, Smoother on the Road

The Hilux’s reputation was built on its rugged body-on-frame architecture, and Toyota has no intention of abandoning it.

The latest version continues to ride on the proven IMV-series ladder frame, but engineers have introduced numerous refinements. Thicker frame side rails improve overall rigidity, while an additional 36 spot welds increase floor stiffness and reduce vibration.

Those changes may sound minor, but they contribute to something Hilux buyers increasingly care about: refinement.

Toyota has also retuned the suspension with revised spring rates and shock absorber calibration. Combined with newly adopted electric power steering, the truck promises improved ride comfort, greater stability, and reduced steering kickback during off-road driving.

In other words, the Hilux remains tough enough to tackle difficult terrain but should feel considerably more civilized on the daily commute.

The Diesel Heart Remains

Power continues to come from Toyota’s trusted 2.8-liter 1GD-FTV turbo-diesel four-cylinder.

Paired with a six-speed automatic transmission, the engine emphasizes low-end torque, strong towing performance, and durability rather than headline-grabbing horsepower figures. Toyota says the powertrain delivers strong acceleration from a standstill while maintaining impressive fuel efficiency and low noise levels.

A part-time four-wheel-drive system remains standard, allowing drivers to switch drive modes via a transfer-case selector.

The Hilux may not be chasing performance-truck territory, but that’s never been the point. Its mission remains providing dependable capability in virtually any environment.

Serious Off-Road Credentials

Unlike many modern pickups that wear rugged styling as a fashion accessory, the Hilux backs up its image with genuine off-road hardware.

Multi-Terrain Select now comes standard, automatically managing engine output and brake intervention depending on surface conditions. Toyota also includes Multi-Terrain Monitor technology, helping drivers navigate difficult obstacles with greater confidence.

Combined with the proven four-wheel-drive system and durable chassis, the Hilux remains one of the most capable factory-built pickups available anywhere in the world.

Smarter and Safer Than Ever

The biggest changes may be found in the truck’s electronic systems.

Toyota Safety Sense gains additional functionality, including Proactive Driving Assist, which can support steering and braking inputs in certain situations. The updated Pre-Collision System can now detect oncoming vehicles while turning at intersections and identify pedestrians crossing during turning maneuvers.

The technology package extends beyond safety. A new 12.3-inch Display Audio Plus system features connected navigation that continuously receives updated mapping and traffic information through Toyota’s data communication module.

Emergency-response services have also been upgraded, with Help Net automatically contacting support personnel following airbag deployment.

Perhaps most importantly, Toyota plans to expand vehicle functionality over time through software updates, ensuring the Hilux can continue evolving after it leaves the showroom floor.

At ¥4,980,800 (about $34,000) for the Hilux Z and ¥5,500,000 (roughly $37,500) for the more rugged-looking Adventure model, Toyota’s pickup remains positioned as a premium offering in Japan’s relatively niche truck market.

The update doesn’t transform the Hilux into something radically different. Instead, Toyota has done what it does best: carefully improve a proven formula.

The truck remains every bit as durable and capable as its predecessors, but now it offers the refinement, technology, and safety features modern buyers expect.

In a world increasingly obsessed with reinvention, the new Hilux serves as a reminder that evolution can be just as effective. Toyota’s legendary pickup hasn’t forgotten what made it famous—it has simply learned a few new tricks.

Source: Toyota