Big news on the Australian motor racing scene recently was the announcement of Toyota teaming up with Walkinshaw Andretti United (formerly Holden Racing Team) to enter the Supercars Championship in 2026. It’s been widely acknowledged for some time that the series needed another major car manufacturer to rejuvenate racing and with Toyotas experience of racing in other countries, this is a great outcome.
As the following Toyota Media release states, they have begun initial design work on the GR Supra race car through their in-house design team based at Altona in Victoria, and are planning to use Toyota’s 2UR-GSE all-aluminium, quad-cam V8 motor that has featured in a range of performance production cars, as well as the 2019 Dakar-winning HiLux, as its baseline engine.
’Toyota to Join Supercars Championship in 2026 with GR Supra’
Other exciting news from Toyota is that two of Lexus’s most eagerly awaited performance cars for many years are about to be released. The 2026 Lexus LFR that will replace the highly acclaimed Lexus LFA Supercar that had a minimal production run from 2012 to 2014 has been seen out and about in Japan, while its sister car, the Toyota GR GT3 developed to compete in the World Endurance Championship by Gazoo Racing, has been testing at racetracks in Europe and Japan.
According to Toyota, both the racer and production cars will make their public debuts in time for the 2026 World Endurance Championship with the release date of the GR GT3 aligning with the road car to match in with their philosophy of Toyota having a motorsport-bred car on the road.
Originally touted as an all-electric or possibly hybrid car when the LFR was first seen as a concept car in late 2022, it now appears that the power plant for both these cars will be the force-fed high performance V8 petrol engine and rear wheel drive only with the potential of an electrified or hybrid variation released later.
2026 Lexus LFR rendered in wake of recent spy shots – carsales.com.au
Whichever way it goes, 2026 is certainly shaping up to be a very exciting year for Toyota on motor racing tracks around the world.
