Toyota GT-one. Born under a bad star.
The Toyota GT-one never won a race, mostly because of bad luck. Misfortune intervened every time this car started a race.
Rewind to the 24 hours Le Mans 1999. Six constructors were on the entrance list: Audi, BMW, Chrysler, Mercedes, Nissan and Toyota. But yet again as in the 1998 edition, Toyota seemed to be haunted by bad spirits and they gave away the win to their German rival BMW.
Toyota GT-one Le Mans 1998
In order to understand this defeat from the Nippon clan, let me take you back to 1998. It was the year of the Toyota come-back in Le Mans with the Toyota GT-one. Not really a return to Le Mans, because since the ending of the Group C in 1994, Toyota stayed in touch the 24 hours race thanks to the Supra LM from the Team SARD. Remember, that was the era of the GT cars. But again, the ideal car in this period came from Mclaren, Porsche or Mercedes.
The rulebook stated that any GT car should be a competition car build from a normal production model. Like Mercedes, they constructed their CLK-LM from a very limited produced car. Toyota looked closely at the different competing constructors and came up with a TS020 ‘GT-one’ road car in 1997.
When the ACO gave the green light, Toyota went on to construct the racing version for the 24h in 1998. The engine would be developed in Japan and the chassis in Germany in the workspace of Toyota Team Europe(TTE) under the guidance of Ove Andersson. They were already responsible for the Corolla in the World championship Rally. The German engineers would get help from the Dallara factory. The overall supervision was done by André de Cortanze. He was previously technical director at Alpine-Renault, Renault and Peugeot. His main achievement was winning LeMans in 1992 and 1993 with the famous Peugeot 905.
After a long construction time between January and September 1997, the car took his first circuit testing in December. They added four race-simulations of thirty hours prior to the Testing-days in April prior to the 24 hours race. There were three GT-one cars seen there; they finished 2nd, 5th and 10th in the time sheets. Second was not bad as the Porsche of Alan McNish was only one hundredth quicker than Martin Brundle.
In qualifications in June for the 1998 race, they were 2nd ,7th and 8th on the grid, only beaten by the CLK-LM in the GT category.
The #28 was in the hands of Emanuel Collard, Martin Brundle and Eric Hélary. Brundle made it into the lead as early as the Mulsanne Corner on lap 1. The car had a good race and was up in the lead for four hours. Then Helary spun and needed to enter the pits with a wheel bearing problem. It was all over when Brundle went off the road just in front of the pits entrance and destroyed the car.
All hopes were from then on the #29 from Thierry Boutsen, Ralf Kelleners and Geoff Lees. That car was leading until the ninth hour before the gearbox failed and the internals needed replacing. It took only 16 minutes. The got back in the lead when two Porsche 911 GT hit troubles after 6am Sunday. When Boutsen had an advantage of 40 seconds, the gearbox failed again, this time beyond repair. There are a lot of stories about this retirement. The most likely was that there was hardly any oil left in the gearbox and a plug was missing; probably that happened at the last cluster change. Only the Japanese #27 car, driven by Ukyo Katayama, Toshio Suzuki and Keiichi Tsuchiya finished the race in a humble P9.
Toyota GT-one; the revenge
Back to the drawing board. The ACO rules now wanted a true GT production car and if not, they were classified in the new ‘Le Mans Prototypes’ class, the LM GTP. Some changes to the GT-one were needed. The ‘EVO-2’version got a gearbox clutch system at the steering wheel, no ABS anymore and smaller wheels. Despite the changes, Thierry Boutsen described the car as faster and less nervous than previous year. For Katayama, it was easier to drive this car. New recruit, coming from Porsche, Allan McNish, did 354km/h on the Mulsanne straight, but remained sceptic for the race.
Brundle and Collard both said the car would do 3’30” in qualifications. And they were right. The Englishman got pole-position with a time of 3’29’930.
Mercedes decided not to race. Their CLR cars went air-borne and they preferred not to put their drivers in more aerodynamical difficulties. Audi had entered four cars: two spyder versions and two closed cockpit versions. There was also Nissan and BMW.
The Le Mans 1999 night eliminated the fastest cars. The #1 (Brundle/Collard/Sospiri) had a hydraulic failure in the 5th hour which forced a switch from steering-wheel paddles to the conventional gearstick. Nine laps were lost on the repair of the gearbox and hydraulics. Then in the night they were out with an exploding tyre putting the car out of the track.
The #2 (Boutsen/Kelleners/McNish) had gotten into the lead but got involved in an accident. Boutsen came into contact with a GT2 Porsche as he approached the Dunlop Chicane during the night. The impact was so heavy that after surgery for back injuries, Thierry Boutsen decided to quit racing after this.
And then, the most deadly strike. In the last hour of the race, the #3 with the same Japanese drivers as last year, were closing in on the leading BMW. Thery hadn’t been quick at the start, but as the race wore on, they picked up pace. Katayama was able to set fastest laps in the final hour. And then, the rear left tyre exploded after Katayama was forced onto the kerbs at the first Mulsanne corner. They finished, but only second.
The GT-one did only one last race, the 1000 km Fuji 1999. There they were beaten by a Nissan R391 because of multiple stop-go penalties and minor electrical problems. The car would become the base for the Toyota F1 car and the endurance adventure would get really stronger again later in the WEC.
