THANK YOU TOYOTA

Spiritual successor to the Lexus LFA, with a brand new 4-litre V8 and an all-aluminium platform, the GR GT could just be our next hero car

- SAM JENKINS

I OFTEN FIND MYSELF SCOURING THE deep recesses of car-based internet forums for a glimpse of the golden era of car development, a time when test mules were truly mysterious things and we weren't drip-fed a stream of 'teasers' for the next big launch.

It wasn't unheard of for these exotic prototypes never to see the light of full-scale production, but that was part of the appeal. My fascination has been fed by a sense that I'd missed out on this golden age myself – until, that is, the first grainy images of a mysterious new car began to surface.

The car you see here is one of the first in decades to have been developed in such secrecy that we didn't even know the badge it would wear until weeks before its launch. Now, though, in the shadow of Mount Fuji, we've been given early access to what is sure to be one of the most significant performance cars of the next few years. Introducing... the GR GT.

In the wider motor industry there's a sense that the clock is ticking for the conventional performance car. Unless you are Toyota, which is refusing to accept this. As other manufacturers have drastically thinned their non-EV performance lineups, Toyota has remained steadfast in its commitment to the driver's car, and now it's finally time to see what it's been creating with the model that launches Gazoo Racing – or GR – as its own brand, to sit alongside Lexus and Century.

What's immediately clear is that the GR GT does not follow the typical supercar formula. Developed by Gazoo Racing under Toyota chairman Akio Toyoda himself, it was conceived and created as a 'race car for the road', and while that's a phrase often thrown around with any car fitted with a splitter and spoiler, the GR GT takes it quite literally. An FIA GT3-spec variant has been launched alongside it, with both cars developed in tandem to allow for parts sharing.