Toyota Officially Launches Much-Anticipated GR GT3

Toyota has finally taken the covers off its hotly anticipated new GT3 car, which has been christened the GR GT3.

The Japanese manufacturer revealed its next-gen GT3 challenger on Friday in a special launch event held at Toyota’s Higashi-Fuji technical center together with its road car sibling, the GR GT, and the Lexus LFA Concept, an entirely separate model.

Powered by a four liter twin-turbo V8 engine, the GR GT3 is destined to replace the Lexus RC F GT3 as Toyota’s GT3 flagship model and eventually race in the FIA World Endurance Championship and IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

However, no details of the GR GT3’s race programs were revealed on Friday, and Sportscar365 understands the RC F GT3 will continue to be used in the WEC next season, with an exact timeline for its WeatherTech Championship debut still unclear.

It is expected, however, that the GR GT will race in next year’s Nürburgring 24, with additional outings in the Nürburgring Endurance Series also a possibility, as well as in the GT300 class of Japan’s SUPER GT series.

Rookie Racing, the team owned by Toyota chairman Akio Toyoda that races in SUPER GT’s GT500 class, is expected to operate the car in both programs ahead of a wider launch in 2027 that will include its debut in the WEC’s LMGT3 division.

The GR GT3 has had one of the longest gestation periods of any race car in recent memory, having been first launched in concept form at the Tokyo Auto Salon in 2022.

On-track running began the following year in Japan, and Toyota has since embarked on an extensive test campaign across multiple circuits in Europe and North America ahead of what was initially expected to be a full-scale 2026 race debut.

The car also appeared in camouflage form at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in July in what is understood to have been the originally-planned official launch.

Toyota stated that the GR GT3 is aimed at “both professional and gentleman drivers who want to win” and to be “easy to drive for anyone behind the wheel” and plans to “establish an optimal support system for customers competing” with the car.

SUPER GT drivers Tatsuya Kataoka, Hiroaki Ishiura, and Naoya Gamou were all involved in the car’s development as well as that of the road going GR GT, which pairs its four liter V8 with a hybrid system to provide an estimated power output of 650 PS (641 hp), delivered through an eight-speed automatic gearbox.

The Lexus LFA Concept, meanwhile, is a battery electric-powered car that “inherits and evolves” the spirit of the previous V10-powered LFA, while utilizing the same aluminum frame as the GR GT and GR GT3.