WRC entry currently has pet project status for TMG

"El Relámpago(LZone) - Humanity First!" (lightningzone) 12/06/2013 at 09:29 • Filed to: None

1

3

Toyota's return to the World Rally Championship has taken a step closer with the news that it will build a Yaris World Rally Car next year.

The Japanese firm's Cologne-based motorsport arm TMG confirmed the Yaris WRC would be up and running in 2014.

A company spokesman said: "From TMG, we are very much interested in coming back to the World Rally Championship.

"We start testing the Yaris World Rally Car next year, running it with our 1.6-litre turbo engine.

"This will be a pretty low-key programme, run in order for us to gain experience of the car and to refresh and build our knowledge base on the technical side of running a World Rally Car."

The car is believed to be in build at the moment but there is no firm decision on a competition programme.

Pascal Vasselon, technical director of Toyota's LMP1 operation, said: "We have not decided on the time of our WRC entry."

The Toyota spokesman added that while there had been no formal green light for a WRC return, it was "reasonable" to say it would go ahead.

"The decision ultimate lies with Japan and, at the moment, there is no concrete request or fixed plan, but it is something we hope will happen.

"To say this is on the horizon seems reasonable."

Source

daender > El Relámpago(LZone) - Humanity First! 12/06/2013 at 09:38

0

Please, Toyota, give it the green flag. You have a founder who's trying to get rid of the company's appliance-like boring reputation by driving a LFA race car in 24-hour races, who also helped bring the second-coming of what could be this generation's 240sx. Bringing back the rally program would be a great "Take that!" to Mitsubishi (also Subaru, right? Haven't they pulled out their factory WRC programs a few years ago?). Yaris + rally + homologation model = a whole new generation of Toyota fans that aren't grounded to the ground .

El Relámpago(LZone) - Humanity First! > daender 12/06/2013 at 10:57

0

Not sure, I'd wish that they kept focus on WEC, winning at Le Mans, against Porsche and Audi is more valuable than 5 WRC titles.

daender > El Relámpago(LZone) - Humanity First! 12/06/2013 at 11:20

2