Toyota GT-One Road Version (TS020) '1998

24 September 1999

MILLION DOLLAR TOYOTA AT MOTOR SHOW

A $1 million Toyota road car will be a star attraction at the Sydney Motor Show which opens on October 15.

The Toyota GT-One is three times as powerful as a Camry V6 and has twice the top speed.

But it has only 10 percent of the luggage space and uses seven times as much fuel.

It is also not for sale - even though twice world rally champion Carlos Sainz is desperate to buy it.

Toyota built the GT-One to qualify for entry in the Le Mans 24 Hour Race.

The world's most important sports car race last year demanded that entries be able to be road registered, and be available for sale for less than $US1million.

It abandoned the rule this year.

Toyota built two GT-Ones, one for road registration and the other to be crash tested to destruction, to pass stringent European safety regulations.

The sole survivor is making a one-off visit to Australia for the Sydney Motor Show prior to heading either for a museum in Japan or pride of place in Toyota Team Europe's headquarters in Germany.

The 1998 GT-One demonstrates how far road car design has come in just two years.

Its 444kW quadcam multi-valve engine pushes it to 325km/h.

But the engine is not as sophisticated or as green as the intelligent variable valve timing system now fitted to the Toyota Echo mini car, also to debut at the Sydney Show.

The sleek GT-One looks like it is built to carve through the air.

But it has a higher coefficient of drag than the class-leading Echo.

"The GT-One has a unique place in world motor racing," Toyota's Australian motor sport manager Peter Evans said.

"It set pole position and finished a close second at this year's Le Mans to a purpose-built race car - so it may well qualify as the fastest road car ever at the race.

The 900kg carbon fibre road car uses switch gear and controls taken from a Toyota Corolla and its paddle gearshift is the predecessor of one soon to be released on Celica.

"It is a remarkable technical exhibit," Mr Evans said. "It is so obviously a Toyota to sit in and feel, yet it is one of the world's most powerful and sophisticated racing cars."

The Sydney Motor Show runs from October 15 to 24 at the Darling Harbour Exhibition Centre.