It's no longer a mystery that Toyota is planning to deliver a road-going hypercar soon. It was showcased as a concept car back in 2018 and as a prototype during the 2020 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race. The hypercar will be based on Toyota's new race car built for the Le Mans Hypercar class. As a homologation special, it will have to see a production run of at least 20 units. The hypercar is rumored to arrive with up to 1,400 horsepower, but we still don't know how it's going to be called. The original concept was called the GR Super Sport, but a new trademark filing suggests it may have an alphanumeric name.
Toyota's first hypercar could be called the GR 010
A similar name was used for the first time in 1992 when Toyota's racing prototype for Group C was called the TS010. In 1998 and 1999, the company's race car for the GT1 and LMGTP categories was called the TS020. Starting 2012, Toyota raced LMP1 prototypes under the names TS030, TS040, and TS050. The latter brought Toyota's first overall win at the 24 Hours of Le Mans and followed up with similar performance in 2019 and 2020.
Will the new-generation race car be called the TS060? We don't know. But a GR 010 badge for a road-going model, where GR stands for Gazoo Racing, Toyota's motorsport division, makes a lot of sense.
The GR 010 won't be Toyota's first supercar based on a racing prototype
The upcoming GR 010 won't be Toyota's first road-legal supercar. The Japanese company built one back in 1998 when it was forced to do so by FIA rules to homologate the TS020, also known as the GT-One. The TS020 was developed as a competitor for the Mercedes-Benz CLK-GTR and Porsche 911 GT1, when regulations required for the race cars to be based on road-going models and feature a trunk. But because Toyota joined the series a bit later, it was no longer required to build 25 road-going cars, like Mercedes-Benz and Porsche. Only one road car was required, and Toyota eventually built two. Both of them are displayed in museums, so the TS-One wasn't actually a production model, with none sold to the public. So while the GR 010 won't be the first of its kind, it will be the first to become available to customers since Toyota needs to make 20 to homologate the race car.
Toyota GR 010 - what we know so far
The original concept car featured a twin-turbo, 2.4-liter V-6 engine rated at 986 horsepower, but it seems that the production model will be much more powerful than that. Word has it Toyota is still going to use the gasoline V-6, but it will add three electric motors and a battery. Total output is said to hit the 1,400-horsepower mark, which will enable the GR 010 to hit 62 mph in just 2.5 seconds.
The road-legal model will look very similar to the race car, so expect it to boast an aggressive exterior design with advanced aero features, a pointy nose, and a canopy-style cockpit with gullwing doors or even a removable top.
Toyota will reveal a more advanced concept version in November 2020, and we should find out more about it then.