Toyota’s celebrated GR86 is nearly ready to don a racing suit. The rear-wheel-drive coupe will participate in a one-make racing series called GR Cup that’s scheduled to start in 2023, and the Japanese firm released additional details about what and where participants will race.
Announced earlier in 2022, the GR Cup will be sanctioned by SRO America (which already sanctions several big-name series). The calendar will include 14 events held on seven tracks across the United States, though Toyota hasn’t revealed precisely where it will take the GR86 racing. While the company pledged to keep the series relatively affordable, its partners helped it offer $1 million in total purse and prizes.
Racers will compete in identical GR86 coupes built in Toyota Racing Development’s Mooresville, North Carolina, facility. Shown above, the model features a Bosch engine management system, a Borla exhaust system, a SADEV six-speed sequential transmission, and a 22-gallon fuel cell. Toyota is also adding Alcon brakes, JRi adjustable shocks, a roll cage, and OMP Racing safety equipment. Visually, the GR86 gains a full body kit that includes a Gazoo Racing-designed splitter and a carbon fiber rear wing. Plastic windows are part of the package as well.
More information (including where the GR86 will race and how much the Cup car will cost) will be released in the summer of 2023. Toyota stressed that this isn’t merely a marketing stunt: it’s a way to celebrate car culture and racing by bringing together like-minded enthusiasts. On a secondary level, it’s also a way for its engineers to gather valuable data that they will use to improve the company’s future road cars.
Yahoo, parent company of Autoblog, is a sponsor of the series.
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Source: www.autoblog.com