- Rare Toyota factory car
- Raced 1992/93/94 Le Mans 24h to 5th/6th/4th place
- Entirely rebuilt & perfect entry for 2023 Le Mans Classic

Back in 1990-1993 Le Mans 24h lived some kind of golden years, with great manufacturers in their assault effort to win the most fabulous endurance race. Jaguar, Nissan, Mazda, Peugeot, Porsche, Sauber and Toyota designed fabulous race cars and gave considerable resources to their teams to build and race amazing race cars. The Japanese motor industry was hugely expanding at the moment and the European market was the top foreign target.

Toyota contracted Dome who first appeared at Le Mans with the spectacular « Zero » in 1979, and in 1985 a Toyota - Dome « 85C » appeared, powered by a 4 cylinder engine. Then in 1989 and the 89C, a V8 with twin Turbo. The cars proved to be reliable but suffered a lack of an ambitious and largely funded program. In late 1990 it was decided to make a stop and focus on the design and building a new car for the 1991 season based under the new « Category 1 » regulation with 750kg cars powered by 3,5 liter engines. The new car called TS010 was extremely fast but since the first tests the reliability has proven to be very poor.

However the decision has been made in mid 1991 to develop a newer version of the Category 2 C-V cars , the 92C-V, as a « back up car » for Toyota’s Le Mans effort. The Mazda’s victory at Le Mans in 1991 also convinced Toyota to win also.
The 92C-V ( aka « 1992 Groupe C V8 » ) was more than an evolution from the 90C-V however. Still built by Dome it benefitted from a totally new bodywork, suspension, carbon brakes and upgraded engine. It was indeed built to be bullet proof and reliable, pure performance being of no real interest back then on a 24 Hours distance. It was also designed to generate more down force because of the two chicanes configuration of the circuit since 1991.
Two chassis were entered at 1992 Le Mans and the subject car, chassis 001 wore number 35 on a beautiful red-rose on white body livery. Driven by Fouché, Andskar and the legendary Stephan Johansson. Entered under the Toyota Team Tom's banner it was operated by Trust, a well know Japanese Le Mans team and All Japan Sport Cars championship winner. It qualified at a steady 17th place but soon constantly ran in the top ten. Despite awful weather conditions that usually generates less stress on the mechanical components, the reliability of the Cat. 1 cars proved to be hazardous and our car finished a remarkable 5th overall, the other 92C-V did 9th.

In 1993 the car was renamed « 93C-V » but still retained its 001 VIN. Its front end was revised to generate more down force, easily recognizable by its front flat splitter and the car was entered with number 25. Its was still driven by the kiwi George Fouché, paired to the Swedish Eje Elgh and Steven Andskar. It was a year of intense competition between the Cat 1 cars with no less that four Toyota TS010 and three Peugeot’s entered. Again the TS010 encountered failures and this was a « triplé » for Peugeot. Thank to a formidable effort on the Sunday morning our car managed to finish a surprising 6th overall only a couple of laps from the best placed TS010. 1993 was supposed to be the last year of Group C cars but this wouldn’t be the end of the 92C-V carrier.

Indeed for 1994 the regulation has changed opening a new area for GT cars but not only… Porsche decided to « play » with the rules and managed to homologated the 962 as a GT car with Dauer but Toyota decided to modify the 92C-V into a LMP1, an all new category at Le Mans. Despite a massive handicap in terms of weight ( 1000kg instead of 900kg ), fuel capacity and downforce, it was decided to enter another two cars that year. Most of the LMP1 modifications consisted in a repositioned rear wing, longer tail and smaller diffuser when the front remained the same. Chassis 001 was driven again by the reliable pair of Fouché and Anskar mated to the famous Porsche ace, Bob Wolleck.
It qualified in 8th position only 4 seconds from the Courage C32 that did the pole. Since the first stages of the race the battle was very tight between Courage, Dauer and Toyota but soon the Toyotas proved to be fast on track, chassis 001 running 2nd after one hour. The sister car chassis 005 took the lead at the 4th hour with 001 3rd, then 1st and second after 7h and during the night our car shared the lead with its sister car. Unfortunately it was suffered from minor issues at lost a couple of laps in the morning. However 005 still occupied the lead until 1H30 before the end when it broke a gearbox linkage and famously stopped on track at the end of the pit lane. It actually lost two laps to fix it and finished 2nd, only one lap from the Dauer Porsche. Toyota would not win Le Mans, a pain after leading it for most of the race. Our car chassis 001 finally finished a fantastic 4th overall proving the immense quality and reliability of the car.
In 3 participations the 92C-Vs always saw the checkered flag and basically scored better results than the TS010.

Only 001 and 005 were entered at Le Mans and they each time saw the arrival at Le Mans, a kind of record in this area where actually a handful of cars actually finished the race. After the race both cars returned to Japan and 005 was later donated to Le Mans Museum. 001 however was used as a development car for the GT-One engine that is indeed very largely based on the 92C-V one.
This car, the sole example in private hands, remained Team Trust’s property until the end of the 2000s when it was acquired by a collector in South Africa who shipped it to UK to be restored into its former glory.
In 2017 it was acquired by the current owner who had the car completely race prepared for Group C Racing.
The car had a few outings before its engine was rebuilt in 2021 by famous engine builder Xtec delivering 782 HP with a very steady boost, running on Motec ECU and data logging. Since then the car has been developed at the wheel of former Le Mans Winner Eric Hélary.
The car is all cracked tested and ready to race, it is also accompanied by an impressive spares package.
It could hardly be a more historic, exotic and reliable Group C car to enter on the Vintage racing scene. Its quality of building and proven technology would make it a fantastic and trouble free car to race at Le Mans Classic in 2023.

This three times Le Mans entrant and performer is a fabulous opportunity to acquire an extremely rare Toyota factory car prototype, fully ready to race.