Manufacturers in Motorsport
Discussion
Watching all forms of four wheeled motorsports over the past year one manufacturer stands out amongst others in terms of participation across all disciplines, Toyota.
Doing a bit of searching, I believe they are currently racing in the following series.
WRC – Factory Team
WRC2 – Customer Racing Support
WEC – Factory Team
GT3/GT4 – Customer Racing Support
Dakar/W2RC – Factory Team
F1 – Technical Partnership (Haas F1)
BTCC – Factory Supported Team (Speedworks)
V8 Supercars (2026) – Factory Supported Team (WAU)
NASCAR – Factory Team
That’s a broad spectrum in terms of categories across the world at the one time.
Has there ever been any other manufacturers participating in such a wide variety of disciplines all at once?
Doing a bit of searching, I believe they are currently racing in the following series.
WRC – Factory Team
WRC2 – Customer Racing Support
WEC – Factory Team
GT3/GT4 – Customer Racing Support
Dakar/W2RC – Factory Team
F1 – Technical Partnership (Haas F1)
BTCC – Factory Supported Team (Speedworks)
V8 Supercars (2026) – Factory Supported Team (WAU)
NASCAR – Factory Team
That’s a broad spectrum in terms of categories across the world at the one time.
Has there ever been any other manufacturers participating in such a wide variety of disciplines all at once?
Toyota are also spectacularly bad at promoting these activities. I used to work on the WEC and GT4 projects at TGR-E in Cologne, Germany and even people living two miles away genuinely thought the whole place shut down after F1 in 2009. Five Le Mans wins on the trot and numerous successes in many of the disciplines listed go almost unnoticed outside the motorsport world in Europe, maybe it’s different in Japan.
They are also almost as hidden as Honda, they were winning F1 in the 90's and basically supporting an entire class of 125 bikes, building often 12 or 14 250 factory 250's and also 4 or 5 500's then the TT, the RVF specials, factory motocross bikes in Europe and USA.
Yet all they actually did in F1 was build engines!!
Yet all they actually did in F1 was build engines!!
generationx said:
Toyota are also spectacularly bad at promoting these activities.
At least they have the GR models in their line up which hints towards their sporting activities.The worst offenders of this surely has to be Citroen? 9 WRC Championships with Sebastien Loeb and they best they could do was a 'stickers special' C2 & C4 By Loeb.
bergclimber34 said:
And the Hyundai Accent period with WRC, the only model they sold in the UK was a 1.3 !!
I think even Skoda had the VRS and even Ford had only the ST170 Focus, not an RS model initially.
Look now at the amount of hot Hyundai's around, it works.
LOL I worked on that project too…I think even Skoda had the VRS and even Ford had only the ST170 Focus, not an RS model initially.
Look now at the amount of hot Hyundai's around, it works.
s-x-i said:
generationx said:
Toyota are also spectacularly bad at promoting these activities.
At least they have the GR models in their line up which hints towards their sporting activities.
bergclimber34 said:
And the Hyundai Accent period with WRC, the only model they sold in the UK was a 1.3 !!
I think even Skoda had the VRS and even Ford had only the ST170 Focus, not an RS model initially.
Look now at the amount of hot Hyundai's around, it works.
Yeah, that Hyundai/ MSD programme was strange; they had the F2 Coupe which was a decent looking car, and was rumoured to be the basis for their WRCar - so much so, the V-Rally 2 game actually had the Coupe as a WRCar, not the Accent. I think even Skoda had the VRS and even Ford had only the ST170 Focus, not an RS model initially.
Look now at the amount of hot Hyundai's around, it works.
Citroen completely missed a trick with their cars; a C4 'by Loeb' was the best they could muster. Really?? What is the point of a WRC programme if you're not going to make some sort of effort. They did a bit better with the DS3 Racing, but it wasn't really a proper 'want' car, was it?
If you look back to that period, the 206 did not really have a proper rapid version. SEATS had Cupra which were sort of hot. But yes Citroen initially has the VTS Xsara which was a fabulous little car, but nothing else.
I would suggest Suzuki did it best,m the Swift Sport is still around and is still regarded as a proper weapon. And they barely had a WRC programme at all!
I would suggest Suzuki did it best,m the Swift Sport is still around and is still regarded as a proper weapon. And they barely had a WRC programme at all!
bergclimber34 said:
I have said for years I loved the Nissan bonkers cars, I did not really care iof they were any good or not, I loved that they tried something out there, a lot of people cared that they failed. I didn't I cared that they simply tried to be different.,
There was certainly no point trying to do things like Audi but with years less experience and a smaller budget, and I thought the Nissans looked great, shame they didn’t work, and the company didn’t have the commitment to keep trying FredericRobinson said:
bergclimber34 said:
I have said for years I loved the Nissan bonkers cars, I did not really care iof they were any good or not, I loved that they tried something out there, a lot of people cared that they failed. I didn't I cared that they simply tried to be different.,
There was certainly no point trying to do things like Audi but with years less experience and a smaller budget, and I thought the Nissans looked great, shame they didn’t work, and the company didn’t have the commitment to keep trying Rewtle Litand said:
Citroen completely missed a trick with their cars; a C4 'by Loeb' was the best they could muster. Really?? What is the point of a WRC programme if you're not going to make some sort of effort. They did a bit better with the DS3 Racing, but it wasn't really a proper 'want' car, was it?
Manufacturers are in racing as a form of advertising and brand awareness.WRC continued with Group A regs into the late 90s. New regs meant it wasn't compulsory to build homologated performance cars for the road that eats up money and aren't great sellers compared to bread & butter boring cars.
Haha sorry chap, but that is an impressive list nonetheless.
The investment they put into bikes is staggering when you think that the sports bike market is nowhere near what it was. They are struggling in the top class, but in SBK they are getting there, against bikes that are far more specialised and bespoke like the Ducati and BMW, they nearly won the BSB title.
The investment they put into bikes is staggering when you think that the sports bike market is nowhere near what it was. They are struggling in the top class, but in SBK they are getting there, against bikes that are far more specialised and bespoke like the Ducati and BMW, they nearly won the BSB title.
Gassing Station | General Motorsport | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff