Take a Wander Through Toyota’s Secret Stash- video

Head into the bowels of TMG to uncover some of the treasures in Toyota’s secret stash, and learn a little about the famous marque’s European motorsport team along the way.

TMG stands for Toyota Motorsport GmbH, and it’s been handling motorsport duties for Toyota since 1972.

Back in 1972 Ove Andersson was looking to run a Toyota Celica in the RAC rally. This meant that his Celica was constantly travelling from Japan to Europe, however, and that was causing troubles. So he set up a workshop, Andersson Motorsport, which grew to become Toyota’s European motorsport team.

Through their history TMG have engineered, built and developed some of the most exciting and successful racing cars in rally and sports car history. The Corolla and Celica rally cars that have rolled out of their doors are responsible for four World Rally Championship Manufacturers’ titles, five Drivers’ titles and many, many rally and safari wins.

They spent eight years in Formula 1 in the naughties, picking up thirteen podiums and three pole positions. Over in sportscar racing the awesome Toyota GT-One claimed a class win in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and its younger brother the Toyota TS040 Hybrid took third outright in the race last year.

This video from XCAR takes us for a visual tour of TMG’s facilities, introducing us to some of the legendary machinery housed within its collection and exploring its history thanks to John Day.

It’s packed with interesting and significant Toyota racing cars, some great classic images and an entertaining chat about their racing history. Let us know if you spot any favourite machines in the comments!

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