1980 Toyota Corolla Gp2 Rally car

HTP

 

 

Back in the 70’s when Toyota was small and in essence being looked down upon outside Japan, Swedish Rally driver Ove Andersson and CEO Eiji Toyoda decided to join forces and use Rally Sport to gain publicity and demonstrate Toyota’s fabulous reliability. In 1975 Andersson founded the Team Toyota Europe (TTE) Rally preparation center in Cologne. TTE would ultimately develop into the current Toyota Gazoo Racing team and together they won just about anything there can be won outside F1. Apart from TTE many local importers were also motivated to enter converted road cars in national rallies which was greatly helped by Toyota Japan’s efforts in homologating as many cars and as many modifications as possible with the FIA.  

 

The car on sale is inspired by the 1983 and 1984 Team Toyota GB Corolla TE71 car driven by Per Eklund and Dave Whittock that won the British Open Rally Championship twice. 

Professionally built in Finland this TE71 was imported to Belgium in 2018 and participated in two mild road rallies in 2019 until Covid stopped many events. Recently the car has benefitted from a new engine built by former TTE Technical Director Gerd Dicks in Germany, widely recognized as the best Toyota Engine specialist in Europe. 

Since then, the car has only driven 600 kms in the VHRS 65 Spa Rally in 2023 where it performed excellently. Following the Spa Rally the car was completely inspected and serviced by International Motorsport in Theux Belgium.

 

We found the concept of the Corolla great and with its 950kg and 170Hp the car is very well balanced and can be driven hard in all conditions. The car would be an ideal entrant for The Monte Carlo Classic, The Eiffel Rally, VHRS, the increasingly popular FIA historic rally championship as well as any other speed or regularity event. 

 

Some specs:

-935 kgs

-2TG 1600 CC engine, approx. 170Hp. Proprietary build Gerd Dicks

-2xWeber 45 DCOE

-Exhaust headers

-Sintered clutch  

-Quick shift 

-LSD Differential 5.13:1

-Ventilated discs front

-Drum brakes rear

-Fly off hand brake

-Welded in roll cage

-Competition seats and belts

-Bilstein front springs with adjustable camber plate

-Bilstein rear shock absorbers

-Brantz International 25 tripmeter 

-19 spare rims including new dry/wet tyres

-Spare engine by separate negotiation