Gazoo Racing traces its origins back to 2007, when Akio Toyoda (then executive vice president) competed in the Nürburgring 24 Hours endurance race alongside driving mentor and Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) Master Driver Hiromu Naruse and several other colleagues.

At the time, because competing in the race was not recognized by TMC as an official company activity, the team was not permitted to use Toyota in its name. Moreover, as Toyoda’s intention to drive in the race was unable to gain much understanding, his only choice was to compete under the driver name “Morizo.”

Although the team managed to finish the race, the achievement immediately came with a sense of humiliation. That was because, while many other, mainly European, competitors were putting under-development cars through their paces in the race, Toyota did not have such a car, let alone any sports cars in its sales lineup, and was on the verge of losing its ability to pass on its car-making skills and expertise.

Armed with a sense of crisis that Toyota would become a company incapable of building sports cars, Toyoda initiated the development of the Lexus LFA, choosing the Nürburgring course as the car’s main development site.

Launched in 2010, the LFA was TMC’s first authentic sports car developed in-house in approximately 20 years. It was the result of a project that faced enormous difficulties, including a lack of wholehearted support within the company for car-making that was deemed by some to be unprofitable, as evidenced by the fact that development was permitted to proceed under the condition that only 500 units would be sold.

Regardless, Toyoda pressed on and revived the 86 in 2012 and the GR Supra in 2019. However, the development of these models relied on Subaru and BMW, respectively, meaning that TMC was not able to achieve the complete in-house creation of a sports car.

In April 2015, TMC decided to consolidate its in-house motorsports activities, including those under the banners of “Toyota Racing”, “Lexus Racing”, and “Gazoo Racing”, under the unified “Gazoo” name, upon which it adopted the logo “Toyota Gazoo Racing”. It was a development that marked the moment when activities that could not use “Toyota” back in 2007 could finally bear the company’s name.

Toyoda, then as president, decided that TMC would return to the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) using the GR Yaris, a Toyota in-house-developed sports car, under the philosophy of making ever-better motorsports-bred cars. This was followed closely by the development and launch of the GR Corolla.

Moving forward TGR, now under the name, “Gazoo Racing” will continue to make motorsports-bred cars such as the GR GT and GR GT3.