GR GT3 Limited to Factory-Backed Teams For 2027

Toyota’s new GR GT3 is set to be restricted to the Japanese marque’s factory-affiliated teams for its first full season of competition next year, with deliveries to other customers ruled out until the start of the 2028 season.

Revealed late last year, the brand’s new flagship GT3 model is set to make its debut in multiple championships next year with the car now in the process of being homologated following an extensive testing program across multiple continents.

Programs in the FIA World Endurance Championship, the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, the Nürburgring 24, and SUPER GT are all in planning for 2027.

Akkodis ASP and Vasser Sullivan will run the WEC and IMSA programs respectively as they transition from the Lexus RC F GT3, while Rookie Racing and KCMG are set to form a two-pronged attack on the Nürburgring 24, with the latter having embarked on a return to the Nordschleife with factory Toyota talent this year.

Rookie Racing is also poised to enter an additional GR GT3 in SUPER GT’s GT300 class.

However, it has now been determined that the car will only be made available to interested customers outside of this select group of teams from 2028 onwards.

Toyota’s new GT3 flagship has had a long gestation period, made even longer by issues surrounding the production of the chassis of its road-going sibling, which threatened to push back the car’s race debut further and were only finally resolved earlier this year.

Since then, the car has been shown off to the press in more detail at events such as the Goodwood Festival of Speed and the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion.

Although not yet homologated, the GR GT3’s aerodynamics are now believed to be finalized, with no further major visual changes expected ahead of the car’s race debut, which could yet occur before the end of this year.

However, sources have indicated that any early debut would now likely be in either SUPER GT or Super Taikyu, with an outing in one of the remaining NLS rounds now deemed unlikely despite multiple public test appearances on the Nordschleife this year.

In either case, this would be in the hands of the Akio Toyoda-owned Rookie Racing team, which runs a Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo in SUPER GT’s lower GT300 division for Hiroaki Ishiura and Tokiya Suzuki with a view to an eventual switch to the GR GT3.

K-tunes Racing and Shade Racing, which run the RC F GT3 in SUPER GT have expressed interest in switching to the new model once it is made available to customers, while GT500 powerhouse TOM’S is also said to have interest in acquiring an example.