Toyota ‘Very Interested’ in GTA’s GT500 Garage 56 Proposal

Toyota has declared itself “very interested” in SUPER GT boss Masaaki Bandoh’s proposal for a GT500 car to race in the 24 Hours of Le Mans as a Garage 56 entry.

GTA chairman Bandoh told Sportscar365 during this year’s running of the French classic in June that he had been lobbying ACO President Pierre Fillon for the title-winning GT500 car to be handed an automatic invite to race at Le Mans the next year.

For the last two years, this invite would have fallen to Toyota flagship squad TOM’S, which is firmly on course for a three-peat, leading the standings at the halfway point of 2025 with the No. 1 GR Supra shared by Sho Tsuboi and Kenta Yamashita.

Toyota is the only one of the three GT500 manufacturers that is also active in the Hypercar class of the FIA World Endurance Championship, which would mean the GR Supra — or a future Toyota GT500 model — going up against the marque’s current GR010 Hybrid at the Circuit de la Sarthe should Bandoh’s vision ever be realized.

Discussing such a prospect, Toyota’s global motorsport director Masaya Kaji expressed enthusiasm for the idea, even if he admitted that adapting a GT500 machine for a 24-hour race would prove a considerable technical challenge.

“It’s very interesting for us,” Kaji told Sportscar365. “The potential of the cars themselves are quite similar. The current [generation of] Hypercar is a bit heavy. But I think it could be interesting to really compare the performance of the two cars.

“My concern is the reliability of the GT500 car because we have no experience of running the car for so long. It would be very challenging. 

“I have discussed it with Bandoh-san, and he has had many discussions with Pierre Fillon. I didn’t have any discussion myself with Pierre about this, but it is very interesting for us. I am quite positive about it.”

Kaji said that a GT500 car running at Le Mans would provide Toyota with a valuable chance to give more of its homegrown domestic drivers experience at the track, although Yamashita notably raced there in 2020 in a High Class Racing LMP2 car.

He did however concede that some kind of Balance of Performance might be required to ensure the GT500 car isn’t too close to the Hypercar on lap time.

“It may be necessary [to slow the GT500 down],” said Kaji. “The Hypercar has good power but it’s a bit heavy. The GT500 car is very quick.”

Similar to the changes that were made to the Chevrolet NASCAR Cup car for its Garage 56 appearance in 2023, any GT500 car competing at Le Mans would also likely need special modifications to allow it to complete the distance.

Asked for his thoughts on the proposal, TOM’S team boss Jun Yamada said an entirely separate program would have to be implemented with Toyota’s support and that using the same car and crew as the SUPER GT team would be impossible.

An added complication comes from the involvement of TOM’S in other categories in Japan such as Super Formula and Super Formula Lights.

“The biggest issue would be the schedule,” Yamada told Sportscar365. “Even if we used Bridgestones, we would need to develop tires that last longer, and then you also need time to test those properly. In that case, the schedule becomes even more difficult.

“Trying to assemble the crew would be another difficult thing. Already at the moment we’re flat out. So I think it would be difficult. 

“There would be many hurdles. From a management side, from a cost control side, it’s a question of how you clear these problems. We just don’t have a lot of margin.”