The Toyota GR GT is being billed as a street-legal version of the GR GT3 race car, and in a shocking number of ways it truly is.
At Fuji Speedway on Friday The Drive was given access and time to compare the new Toyota GR GT and GR GT3 side-by-side. The design similarities are surprisingly numerous.
That jibes with the fact that GR GT Project Manager Takashi Doi told media on Thursday that the road car and the GT3 race car started at the same time, and development has been concurrent. But the GR GT3 is based on the GR GT street car, which meant the team had to figure out how they could share and fully utilize as many common parts as possible, according to Doi.
The aluminum chassis is shared between the cars. So is the design itself.
The body panels all share their basic designs right down to most of the aerodynamic elements.
The front grille shapes are the same, though the race car has a bit more open, mesh-filled grille section than the street car. The hoods are a little different with a massive air extraction point in the front of the race car hood to let heat out of the radiators. The street car features a mail-slot intake to let air under the hood and extraction over the hot V turbo setup.
The GR GT3’s front fenders feature louvers that let air out of the fender well, which today’s street car lacks. A large air extraction point sits behind the front wheel of both cars with the race car featuring side-exit exhaust mounted just below this extraction point in the side sill. Sadly, the street car does not have side-exit exhaust.
Both cars have similar shoulder lines down the sides of the doors to channel air into rear fender-mounted intakes to cool the rear ends. For the street car this air cools the transaxle while in the race car it cools the transmission, which Toyota hasn’t detailed yet.
The rear deck features similar ducktail spoilers, but the GT3 race car features an additional large spoiler mounted on stanchions that are bolted to the chassis.
The rear bumper shapes are similar and even the lower rear diffusers share curvature lines, though the street car has a quad exhaust setup poking through the rear end.
The shapes, body panels, and even aerodynamics are incredibly similar between the two with both cars sitting shockingly low. How much of the GT3 race car’s extra aero and design makes its way to a hotter GR GT at some point in the future is yet to be seen, but the groundwork’s being laid and honed on the track.
Toyota provided travel, lodging, and raw fish which I definitely did not eat to bring you this first-hand report.
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