Gallery: The tale of Toyota’s Le Mans challengers

Toyota are in with a shot at becoming the first Japanese manufacturer to win at Le Mans since Mazda in 1991 if their form leading into the 2014 Le Mans 24 hours is anything to go by. Let’s take a look back at their amazing endurance machines of the past.

Despite having actually powered Le Mans cars as early as 1975, it wasn’t until 1985 that Toyota officially entered the race with their own machine, to compete officially in their first 24 hours of Le Mans. The car was the Toyota 85C, which became the first Japanese car to finish at La Sarth. In the near 20 years since, much has changed. Let’s take a walk down memory lane.

1985 – Toyota 85C

12th place (Satoru Nakajima, Masanori Sekiya, Kaoru Hoshino)

1986 – Toyota 86C

Retired

1987 – Toyota 87C

Retired

1988 – Toyota 88C

12th place (Geoff Lees, Masanori Sekiya, Kaoru Hoshino)

24th place (Paolo Barilla, Hitosho Ogawa, Tiff Needell)

1989 – Toyota 88C-V

Retired (Two cars taken out in accidents)

1990 – Toyota 90C-V

6th place (Geoff Lees, Masanori Sekiya, Hitosho Ogawa)

1992 – Toyota TS010

2nd place (Masanori Sekiya, Pierre Henri Raphanel, Kenny Acheson)

5th place (Stefan Johansson, George Fouche, Steven Andskar)

8th place (Jan Lammers, Andy Wallace, Teo Fabi)

11th place (Roland Ratzenberger, Eje Elgh, Eddie Irvine)

1993 – Toyota TS010 (93C-V was also raced)

4th place (Masanori Sekiya, Toshino Suzuki, Eddie Irvine)

5th place (Roland Ratzenberger, Naoki Nagasaka, Mauro Martini)

6th place (George Fouche, Steven Andskar, Eje Elgh)

8th place (Geoff Lees, Jan Lammers, Juan-Manuel Fangio II)

1994 – Toyota 94C-V

2nd place (Mauro Martini, Jeff Krosnoff, Eddie Irvine)

4th place (Bob Wollek, George Fouche, Steven Andksar)

1995 – Toyota Supra (LM-GT1 class)

14th place (Marco Apicella, Jeff Krosnoff, Mauro Martini)

1996 – Toyota Supra (LM-GT1 class)

Retired (accident)

1998 – Toyota GT-One

9th place (Ukyo Katayama, Toshino Suzuki, Keiicho Tsuchiya)

Retired whilst leading (Theirry Bousten, Ralf Kelleners, Geoff Lees)

1999 – Toyota GT-One

2nd place (Katayama, Suzuki, Tsuchiya)

2012 – Toyota TS030 Hybrid

Retired

2013 – Toyota TS030 Hybrid

2nd place (Anthony Davidson, Sebastien Buemi, Stephane Sarrazin)

4th place (Alexander Wurz, Kazuki Nakajima, Nicolas Lapierre)

2014 – Toyota TS040 Hybrid

3rd Place  (Anthony Davidson, Sebastien Buemi, Nicolas Lapierre)

DNF  (Alexander Wurz, Kazuki Nakajima, Stéphane Sarrazin)