Toyota City, Japan, Dec 26, 2024 - (JCN Newswire) - TOYOTA GAZOO Racing (TGR) plans to exhibit at Tokyo Auto Salon 2025* to be held at Makuhari Messe (in Chiba City, Japan) for three days from January 10 to 12, 2025. Chairman Akio Toyoda, aka Master Driver Morizo, is due to present at a press conference scheduled to start at 9:30 a.m. on January 10 under the main theme of "Car-making at Nürburgring", which is the starting point of TGR and Morizo.
TGR is set to exhibit this time, along with Daihatsu Motor Co., Ltd., at Makuhari Messe's North Hall. TGR's booth will include the "LAND CRUISER BASE" display for promoting the fun of customizing the Toyota Land Cruiser, which was hitherto put on separately by Toyota Auto Body Co., Ltd. This coming together by members of the Toyota Group aims to boost excitement at Tokyo Auto Salon 2025.
During the event's three days, TGR plans to hold talk sessions featuring various personalities, as well as outdoor vehicle demo runs. Detailed information on exhibited vehicles, the talk sessions, the demo runs, and others can be found on the following special https://toyotagazooracing.com/eventexhibition/tokyoautosalon/
Nürburgring―Morizo's starting point
TGR's exhibit is planned to feature vehicles related to competing at the Nürburgring, which is known as the world's toughest road circuit and the starting point of TGR and Morizo. Morizo and then-Toyota Master Driver Hiromu Naruse, who was Morizo's driving mentor, based on their shared belief that "races are the best places to pass on skills and develop human resources", competed in the Nürburgring 24 Hours endurance race for the first time in 2007. In their "DIY-style" team that took up the challenge, Toyota employees served as drivers and engineers, and the vehicle they competed in was a modified used Toyota Altezza. Representing the starting point of TGR's philosophy of making ever-better motorsports-bred cars, TGR plans to display, among other cars, the TOYOTA ALTEZZA #109 (2007 NÜR 24h) used by that first team and the TOYOTA SUPRA (NÜR training car) that served as Morizo's Nürburgring training vehicle at the time.
Talk sessions and outdoor demo runs
The talk sessions, under the theme of "Challenging the Nürburgring", are to feature Morizo and TGR drivers active in Japan and abroad as well as various programs including one in which professional drivers, evaluation drivers, and engineers talk about the past and future. Also, Morizo, TOYOTA GAZOO Racing-World Rally Team (TGR-WRT) Team Principal Jari-Matti Latvala, TGR-WRT Deputy Team Principal Juha Kankkunen, and driver Norihiko Katsuta are to perform outdoor demo runs in a rally cars and a concept vehicle model. Details on the dates, times, and contents will be posted on the special website mentioned above as they become available.
*A customized car event; January 10: business day (industry and press), January 11 and 12: general public days.