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For the best part of three decades, Supercars in the modern era has been a contest between Ford and Holden.
Manufacturers like Volvo, Nissan, and Mercedes-AMG have all come and gone without achieving the ultimate success.
Toyota watched on from the sidelines content just to be a category partner with its Lexus safety car, feeling that the landscape was “too tribal” between the camps that bled red or blue.
Now, the Japanese manufacturer is ready to have its own horse in the race.
With the Supra, Toyota feels it has the perfect car to rival the Mustang and Camaro in Supercars.
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Sean Hanley, Toyota’s vice president of sales, marketing, and franchise operations, told media members at the launch of its Supercars program that the brand is ready to join the fold.
“I was a junior manager when we first started talking about Supercars or V8s, and it was a lot of great history,” said Hanley.
“We’re also very respectful of the huge brand loyalty to Ford and Holden in that era.
“We often wondered, if we ever went out and won this race, what would really happen? Probably more risky to win it than not to play at all.
“So back in the tribal days – and I have no doubt that that tribalism still exists – but there’s now room for a new player, and I think it’s timely.”
Hanley intimated winning the Bathurst 1000 is at the top of the pile for Toyota as far as its achievements go.
He’s conscious it’s not going to be as simple as building a Gen3-spec Supercar and winning straight away.
“Toyota is a big part of this country now, we contribute a lot to this country,” said Hanley.
“V8 Supercars is a big part of the motorsport landscape, but the thing that we’ll take out of this is that we know that we’ll learn a lot from motorsport as well.
“We’ll take a lot of learnings, and we’re excited, and I’m so pleased that we finally are in a position where now we’re going on the grid to add or be there, and we’re not a short-term player.
“We’re not coming in here just to be a PR stunt. We’re coming in because we want to do well.
“We know we’ve got to earn our right. We understand that. We’ve got to learn, we’ve got to get right.
“Winning’s not a right. Winnings earned. And we think we’re with the very best team to do that.
“We’ve got the very best backing in our own organization, both globally and domestically.
“And I’ve got to point out, this is a Toyota Australia initiative, so everything we’re doing here with Walkinshaw is local and we’re very proud, and I couldn’t be more excited.”
Toyota has often been linked to joining Supercars in a factory capacity.
Hanley revealed the marque gave the category a serious look before the turn of the century when launching its Avalon sedan, but decided not to press forward with a program.
The advent of the Gen3 platform means it’s easier than ever for Supra, with a chassis far smaller than its Gen2 predecessor.
Like the Mustang and Camaro, the Supra will bear a near-identical resemblance to its road-going counterpart.
Its world-famous GR brand was deployed in Australia only a few years ago via the newly minted, Toyota 86-based GR Cup as well as an Australian Rally Championship program with the Yaris.
Gazoo Racing, said Hanley, is the key to being able to compete in Supercars.
“When we started selling that little Yaris and then the Corolla and the GR Sports and GR just got traction, it just reminded us at Toyota despite everything going on in the world right now, there’s still a fan base out there for performance cars. People still want them,” Hanley explained.
“Now, they may change in the future, and they may take different shapes, and even Supercars has evolved, right? It’s different to what it was, and that tribalism 20 years ago, but we saw an opportunity to really stamp Toyota’s credentials again on motorsport in Australia.
“We want to show the world, we want to show Australia we can actually do this. We can actually do this, and we can be a competitive player in the space. So the short answer is, GR.”
