Toyota GR GT3 Concept shows up in European patent drawings
At the 2022 Tokyo Auto Salon, one of the Toyotas we feasted on was the Gazoo Racing GT3 Concept. Born of the Japanese automaker’s belief that it can provide more enthusiast enjoyment by commercializing race cars than by making customer cars racy, the quotes and suggestions at the time were that the GT3 Concept would result in race car that would become a road car. Toyota said it would have prototypes on the road by the end of the year. The month after the Salon, TRD President David Wilson said the next Lexus IS would be a race car first, then a road car. Whatever is going to happen appears to have taken another big step in Europe, Carscoops catching a Toyota filing lodged with the European Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO). That bureau posted images of a version of the GT3 Concept featuring everything one expects save the concept’s impressive rear wing, which has been replaced by a small spoiler under the rear window.
GT3 class rules require cars to be based on a mass production road car. As part of the hook to buyers, manufacturers like to tout their GT3 donor models as boasting similar parts content or spec to their GT3 race car. We’re not sure how these images reflect what might arrive on a race car or road car; Toyota could merely be protecting its race car with this filing. The images include the concept’s side exhaust, dive planes, aggressive front spoiler and rear diffuser, center-lock wheels, and racy tires. All but the side exhaust would be no surprise to make production; a few GT3 competitors mount pipes along their flanks, but none of their road-car inspirations are set up the same.
We’d be looking for two street versions to come of this concept. Design details on the GR show car, especially in the rear, could have come straight out of a Lexus studio. In fact, Wilson already said, “It’s fairly safe to connect the dots and suggest that [the GR GT3 concept] could be a precursor to the next global GT3 car for Lexus.” On top of that, we noted the similarities between the GR GT3 Concept and Mazda’s RX-Vision GT3 Concept from 2020, with WhichCar doing everyone the favor of tracing the former’s silhouette over the latter to show the resemblance. That puts Mazda on the map, so we’ll wait to see if the much smaller automaker follows through.
