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The Toyota GT-One (Toyota codename: TS020) was one of Toyota's cars to be entered in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. It first raced in 1998 and ended racing a year later. After the GT-One project, Toyota entered racing in the Formula 1 World Championship in 2002 and withdrew in the 2009 Formula 1 season along with their direct competitor, the Honda Racing F1 Team (which pulled out the previous year).

This article is focused on the 1999 racing version:

  1. For the 1998 racing version, see here.
  2. For the road version built for homologation reasons, see here.

In Gran Turismo

GT one GT2

The #1 variant in Gran Turismo 2.

This Toyota GT-One has been featured in all games since Gran Turismo 2. However, the appearance of this car was slighty changed in its various appearances. In GT2 and GT3, this car appears to be the #1 (chassis number LM907), driven by Martin Brundle, Emmanuel Collard, and Vincenzo Sospiri. Starting from GT4 and onwards, this car appears to be the #3 (chassis number LM804, previously the #28 car used in the 1998 24 Hours of Le Mans), driven by Ukyo Katayama, Keiichi Tsuchiya, and Toshio Suzuki.

Description

"No other Japanese race car with an all-Japan team behind the wheel had a better finish at Le Mans than this effort by Toyota."

In 1998, Toyota decided to race the 24 Hours of Le Mans for the first time since its days racing Group C cars. Back then, Toyota developed its road race cars exclusively in-house, within Japan. However, this time it entrusted the project to the group in charge of their World Rally Championship activities, German-based TTE (Toyota Team Europe) - The car it created was truly a world-class machine.

The new Le Mans Car, the TS020, was designed by André de Cortanze, known for styling the Peugeot 905B that conquered Le Mans in 1993. He pulled no punches with this car, incorporating the latest F1 technology into the design of the TS020.

Powering the svelte-looking car was the same twin-turbocharged 3.6-liter V8 developed during the company's Group C days. The car's handling was a notch above the competition, with long control arms à la Formula 1.

In its first outing at Le Mans in 1998, the TS020 showed superior performance, faster than any other car on the track, but mechanical trouble and an accident dashed any hope of winning. The following year, Toyota entered three TS020s. Of those, the lead and second car retired early, but the third car, driven by Ukyo Katayama, Toshio Suzuki, and Keiichi Tsuchiya managed to stay in the race and ultimately took 2nd place. This was the highest finish ever for a Japanese car driven by an all-Japanese team at Le Mans.

Acquisition

GT2

This car can only be unlocked by achieving all gold trophies in the S Licence (it's also used for said license's graduation test, located at Apricot Hill).

GT3

This car can be won by winning the Polyphony Digital Cup or the Gran Turismo All Stars. In both events, it has a chance of 1/4 (25% of probability) to come as a prize car.

GT4

Toyota-gt-one-race-car-ts020-99-black

The Black GT-One in GT4.

2 versions of this car are available in this game, and both have different methods of acquisition:

The regular GT-ONE can be purchased in the Toyota Legendary Cars showroom for 4,500,000 Credits, while the Black Version can be found in days 694-700 of Gran Turismo 4's calendar cycle in the Used Car Showroom (Late '90s) and can be purchased for 2,924,999 Credits.

GTPSP

This car can be purchased for 3,500,000 Credits. It also appears as one of the Driving Challenges Vehicle, where the player must overtake the opponent driving the Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR race car.

GT5

As a Standard Car, the Toyota GT-ONE Race Car (TS020) '99 can be acquired in one of two ways:

  1. Winning 24 Hours of Le Mans on B-Spec.
  2. Finding it at the Used Car Dealership and purchasing it for 2,927,445 Credits.

No matter which method the car is obtained, it is Level 23.

GT6

The Player can purchase this car for 1,700,000 Credits. It is a simple car.

Trivia

  • This car is also one of four 'Black Cars' available for purchase during days 694-700 of the Gran Turismo 4 calendar cycle.
  • From its first appearance in Gran Turismo 2, up until Gran Turismo 4, this car had Esso Ultron (PAL version, also in NTSC [J] on some GT series) as its main sponsor, like in real life. However, since the PSP version of Gran Turismo was released and has continued to this very day, it carries Exxon Superflo (NTSC version) sponsorship. Many people have come to the conclusion that it was a licensing issue, as the Peugeot 905 Race Car '92 and Peugeot 206 Rally Car '99 also have their main sponsors changed, and the Toyota ESSO ULTRAFLO Supra (JGTC) '01 was removed due to the non-existence of an Exxon-sponsored variant.
  • This version of the GT-One had a large double-chevron shape that covers its body. The fact is, in 1999, the #1 car was sponsored by Marlboro, a cigarette manufacturer, despite the fact that Europe has launched anti-tobacco laws. During the practice sessions, the double chevron logo was switched to barcodes.
  • For some reasons, since Gran Turismo 4, the Sauber C9 and this car share the same engine sound.
  • The #1 variant displayed in GT2 and GT3 is actually the version used in the 1999 Le Mans Fuji 1000 km, where only one GT-One with Esso sponsorship was entered, and lost against Nissan's R391 LMP, but won the LMGTP class nonetheless. Car #1 was originally sponsored by ZENT in Le Mans.
    • However, despite the #1 variant being based on the car which took part in the 1999 Le Mans Fuji 1000 km, the car lacks the ZENT sponsorship on the front and on the rear wing. Additionally, "24 Hours of Le Mans" stickers are clearly visible on the sides of the car. This may suggest that the #1 variant displayed in GT2 and GT3 is a mix between the cars who have took part at the 1999 24 Hours of Le Mans and the 1999 Le Mans Fuji 1000 km.

Pictures

Notes

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