Erm, well no not really, but you certainly sat upright, didn’t you? I certainly did when the artists impressions of an Avensis BTCC Touring Car appeared in Twitter this afternoon. Memories of the Carina E in Securicor colours being raced hard by Will Hoy came flooding back. However, the full information is that Toyota have supplied a shell to help develop the new regulations for the British Touring Car Championship for next year. The car is being built by GRP Motorsport to assess the new regulationsand develop the ‘control’ components for 2011. As part of this phase, the car will actually race this October at Brands Hatch.

However, Toyota point out that they have no plans to re-enter touring car racing in the UK. That’s despite having a fully build development car sitting there ready to go… Hmmm…. Now where’s my new Stilo helmet….

OK, so perhaps you need to be a bit of a geek to want to buy this, but don’t just tune out, read on a little. When I saw that Veloce Publishing were printing a study of the Celica GT Four as a rally car, I wondered who might want to buy it. For sure, I would, because GT Fours are one of my favourites and I love reading about the history of Toyota and motorsport, but who else?

Well actually, author Grahan Robson has done a very good job at providing not just an accurate, comprehensive guide to the various versions of GT Four rally cars, but also a very good insight into that period of TTE’s history and the early days of the Group A rally scene generally.

There are lots of great colour and black & white shots, some of the iconic ones you’ll have seen before, but many I’d not from the collections of people like Phil Short. It goes into detail about the road cars, the thinking behind Toyota head office when TTE had to choose the Celica as a base for the project and the restrictions of having to develop a world championship rally car from a road car that wasn’t the lightest or best suited to the task.

GT Four drivers are all profiled, including superstars like Sainz and Kankkunen, plus lesser known but equally capable such as David Llewellin and Kenneth Eriksson.

There’s also significant coverage of the famous disqualification of TTE after being caught cheating in 1995 and the impact it had at the team.

Even if you’re not into the Celica GT Four, it’s a good book. If you’re into 1990’s rallying, you should buy it. If you’re into 1990’s rallying and you have fond memories of GT Fours, Sainz and Kankkunen, it’s an absolute must have addition to your book case.

The softback cover and dimensions of the book are just right and Robson does a good job at making what could be a heavy going subject easy to read and understand. It’s available from Veloce Publishing and no doubt all good motoring book stores.

24 hours on from the announcement of Toyota departing Formula One, here’s my purely personal thoughts.

I always thought F1 was a poor fit for Toyota / Lexus. Sure it’s high tech and high profile with a global TV audience of many millions, but unlike Ferrari, that’s not who they make cars for. The Prius and other hybrids jarred with the arrogant, Beautiful People image of F1 and for sure, Max Mosley won’t have helped.

I believe the new chairman realised before he even took office that F1 didn’t fit with Toyota’s future. The company has been changing rapidly in it’s stance,what it stands for, the cars it builds and how it’s going to interact with it’s customers in future years. Sitting in the air conditioned motorhome behind barriers and smoked glass in the F1 paddock just doesn’t fit with the way they see Toyota and Lexus and reaching their customers in future.

The key phrase in their communication on this is:

“Drawing on its experience in F1 and other motor sports, TMC intends to move forward in developing exciting production vehicles, such as the Lexus “LFA” supercar and compact rear-wheel-drive sports cars. In motor sports, it will not only race in various categories, but will also actively contribute to further development of motor sports by supporting grassroots races and planning events in which it is easy for people to participate.”

Indeed Akio Toyoda’s speech says, “A commitment to contributing to society through the manufacture of automobiles has steered all activity at Toyota since the company’s beginning. Today, we are undertaking several initiatives to promote the development of automotive culture on a new and higher plane.”

The world of marketing is vastly different from the one it was when they entered F1 eight years ago and Toyota have been very quick indeed to get the whole vibe that’s going around social media, car communities and the way that people digest information.

Take a look at what TMC & Lexus USA did at SEMA. Many car makers I can think of would take one glance at the tuner Lexus ISC’s and say, “Sorry, that will invalidate your warranty” Toyota & Lexus, instead showcased a whole range of really cool IS-C’ convertibles, GS300 and Tundra trucks that pick up on the whole vibe and give them interaction and credibility.

The way that Toyota have so many blogs, Flickr pages, Twitter feeds and other branches of communication globally is vast. They really ‘get’ social media and how they can reach out to their customers like no other car maker. It’s like social media was made for Toyota and Lexus and the way they see things.

My personal view is that they’ve realised they don’t need, in fact probably don’t want F1 in their future plans.

Good for them. What’s your view?

Toyota to pull out of Formula One, it’s true. I’m surprised, though not disappointed. Surprised because it could be seen as an admission of defeat in some circles and, or course, loss of face. Though not as big an embarassment as posting the first financial loss for many decades. In business, Toyota don’t do second place.

I’m not disappointed because I think Toyota has many other avenues open in world motorsports that would give a better return on their investment.

Remember the iconic shot of Kankkunen in the Celica against the backdrop of Kilimanjaro, King Carlos so narrowly missing out on a WRC crown in the Corolla, GT racing at Le Mans and in the USA? All things they could now attack. And how about getting out there with the new Lexus LFA and building a motorsport image for Lexus? With a new chairman who’s a racer, they won’t quit motorsport completely.

Sure, Bernie and the FIA will be disappointed, but they’ll get over it. Meanwhile, lets take a breath, feel sorry for all the F1 team staff who undoubtedly put their heart and soul into winning and listen to see where they’re headed now. Personally, I think it might just be the start of some exciting times, with luck.

Pascal Vasselon is General Manager Chassis with Toyota F1. Here’s his thoughts on the forthcoming Brazilian GP.
What are the characteristics of Interlagos?
A few years ago we used to say it was extremely bumpy and we would spend the weekend working on the suspension to absorb the bumps. But we saw in the last years that after the latest work, Interlagos is now no bumpier than most other tracks so that is no longer a feature. What we are left with is a very interesting lay-out which presents quite a challenge, with low, medium and high-speed corners as well as a long straight. This means you have to compromise in terms of downforce and drag level to get strong performance on the infield and give yourself a chance to pass at the end of the start-finish straight.

Will Interlagos suit the TF109?
We have always been quick in Brazil so we expect to be very competitive. In terms of aerodynamic efficiency Interlagos is close to the baseline configuration we run in the wind tunnel so our car is very well optimized to this kind of track. Last year we definitely had the pace to finish on the podium after Jarno qualified second with quite a lot of fuel on board. We had the race pace as well but it turned out to be a little bit difficult because of the rain. In the end we missed the podium and Timo did very well during those famous last laps on dry tyres when it was raining. Overall he gained a position and finished sixth but we were a little bit disappointed because we had the speed to be on the podium.

Will you take any special steps to help Kamui Kobayashi?
We saw already in Suzuka that Kamui is a very capable driver so we are confident he can meet this challenge, but of course we will be giving him additional support this weekend considering it will be his Grand Prix debut. He is very familiar with a Formula 1 car from all the testing he has done with us, where he has shown speed and consistency. However this weekend we will pay special attention to areas which are not his priority in testing; race pit stops, race starts and low-fuel qualifying for example. We will take full advantage of the practice sessions to familiarise him with every aspect of a Grand Prix weekend and we are sure he’ll do a good job.

Now we are nearly at the end of the season, what is your assessment of the TF109?
This season we have been competitive on virtually every kind of track. We had a one-off drop in performance at Monaco but, as you can see from our second place in Singapore, we have understood the issue and recovered our low-speed performance. However, we have been inconsistent so at the end of the season we haven’t scored all the points we should have considering our raw pace. Several times we have either qualified well and faced issues in the race or been extremely competitive in the race after a difficult qualifying. This has affected our final points total.

What were the strengths of the TF109?
All in all the TF109 has many strong points which is why it has been competitive on many different kinds of circuits this season. If I have to select specific areas, I would say aerodynamic efficiency is very good in the mid-range of downforce and we have good stability, particularly in terms of braking stability. This has meant the drivers are very confident in the car and it is relatively easy to drive.

Were there any weaknesses with the TF109?
Very early in on winter testing we found out the car was generally good so we had no specific problems to fix. Since then it has been all about development; just getting more performance and improving global aerodynamic efficiency. The only significant issue we had to address was Monaco as this weekend highlighted a lack of low-speed grip and downforce, which we have now solved.

How would you assess the development rate of the TF109?
For sure we have been pushing hard and the development rate has been significant. We started the season very competitively and we are ending the season at a similar level; this demonstrates we have certainly not been out-developed. We have put a lot of performance on the car throughout the season despite the testing ban which has really been a good effort from everyone. Obviously we have seen some changes to our relative competitiveness during the course of the season. The main reason is that the field is exceptionally tight so better or worse adaptation to a given track or slight preferences have resulted in unusually big changes to the order.

How important have tyres been as a performance factor this season?
This season’s tyres have been a bit more difficult to manage than last year’s. They are one step more peaky and more difficult to use, which is a characteristic of the slick compound. The slick uses its compound much better than the grooved tyres but as a consequence it makes the compound working range much smaller. These tyres have been more sensitive to ground temperature and warm up which created a situation where drivers were sometimes surprised from one outing to another by the level of grip. We have spent a lot of energy to find out early in each race weekend the exact thumbprint of each specification and what issues relate to them.

Has the movable front wing made a difference to performance?
It is something that, despite costing some weight, you would like to have for two reasons. Firstly it helps to tune the balance, and consequently performance, of the car during a given lap. When you have a balance difference between high and low speed sectors of a track you can tune the balance once per lap. This is particularly useful on a qualifying run or during the race when you can adjust to compensate for tyre degradation so for pure performance it is a big help. On top of that it makes the set-up process quicker. In the past when we were changing suspension stiffness or weight distribution, we had to anticipate the correct aero balance and, if you got it wrong, you had to pit to correct it. Now the driver tunes the aero balance himself on the out lap which really speeds up the set-up process.

You’ve seen them on fire on Top Gear, stalking Lions in Africa and with machine guns on them in the world’s conflict areas, well here’s another use for the Hi Lux. It’s the Oz GP this weekend and Toyota F1 star Timo Glock had a crack at two wheel driving one of the Hi Lux Heroes stunt driving team’s trucks. Looks like he did a pretty good job, but I can;t help thinking he’ll have notice a lot less aero grip with the flat bottom working properly.Timo Glock in the Hi Lux. Photo via Toyota GB

If you haven’t heard of them before, the Hi Lux Heros are an Australian stunt team of pro drivers using Hi Lux 4×2 trucks to perform stunts. We’ll be writing more about the Hi Lux Heros in a later post.