Toyota Knows How To Do Throwback Liveries Better Than Anyone

Toyota’s first official entry at the 24 Hours of Le Mans took place forty years ago at the 1985 running of the twice-around-the-clock French event. To commemorate the 40th anniversary of its efforts at La Sarthe, Toyota has rolled out a throwback livery for this year’s number seven Gazoo Racing GR010 Hybrid entrant. While it could have been cool to see a re-run of the Leyton House-liveried Toyota 85C, Toyota instead opted to ape the more recognizable and more successful TS020 “GT-One” entry’s torn red and white scheme from 1998. The throwback-look will adorn the car driven by Mike Conway, Nyck de Vries, and Kamui Kobayashi. 

Toyota Gazoo Racing

Toyota will enter a second GR010 at Le Mans, as it has in the full World Endurance Championship, though without the impressively attractive throwback livery. The number eight car, run by Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley, and Ryo Hirakawa will race in Gazoo Racing’s typical matte black livery. This boring decision is all the more punctuated by the exciting 1998 livery on the seven. I, for one, hope the spirit of the 1998 near-win will be with the seven and push it on to the victory it missed out on all those years ago.

The GT-One was a three-pronged effort in 1998, and led the race in 1-2 formation for several hours, though one car crashed out and another suffered a broken transmission from the lead with 90 minutes remaining. In 1999 the carbon-monocoque twin-turbo V8 monster was on for a come-from-behind victory at the legendary race, but a flat tire in the final-hour pushed the car down to second, gifting the win to BMW’s open-top V12 LMR. 

Toyota has five overall Le Mans wins, sweeping every June from 2018 to 2022. With seriously impressive competition this season, and a balance of performance that doesn’t quite favor the Toyota as it is the oldest hypercar in the field, it would take a lot of effort for the Japanese brand to return to the winning position in 2025. It takes more than odds and performance to win at Le Mans, though, it takes precision and Toyota has learned the hard way, through several narrowly-missed wins, how to be precise. Chances are high that the number seven car will be the best-looking machine on the grid, though.