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Toyota Motorsport GmbH is a Toyota company based in Cologne, Germany. It employs around 200 people in a 30,000m2 factory and provides motorsport and automotive services to fellow Toyota companies and to outside clients. TMG was responsible, under the name Toyota Team Europe (TTE), for Toyota's World Rally Championship cars starting from the 1970s right up to the 1990s. In addition, since 1994, TMG has developed a tuning business for road cars, offering complete vehicles or tuning and sports accessories. In 1999 the company stopped participating in rallying, in order to prepare for a switch to Formula One in . From 2002 to 2009, TMG participated in Formula 1 under the team name Panasonic Toyota Racing, starting 139 Grands Prix. In that time, they finished on the podium 13 times, earned three pole positions and scored a total of 278.5 points. On November 4, 2009, Toyota announced their withdrawal from Formula 1. In the meantime, it entered sports car racing and the 24 Hours of Le Mans: in 1998 and 1999, finishing 2nd in 1999 with the Toyota GT-One. TMG has moved back into sports car racing as an exclusive engine supplier from 2011 onwards to Lola Cars, powering Rebellion Racing. In 2012 TMG fully returned to sports car competition with the Toyota TS030 Hybrid. == Rally history == TTE was started in London in 1972 when Toyota representatives and Ove Andersson, who won the Monte Carlo Rally in 1971, decided that he should drive a Toyota Celica in the RAC Rally in the autumn of that year. Andersson came ninth, beating other Japanese top teams who mostly worked with the Datsun 240Z. The Toyota Celica had to travel from Japan to the European events all the time, which was not good for the car, so Andersson set up a workshop of his own, Andersson Motorsport, which became Toyota's first European team. It was founded in 1973 with its workshop in Uppsala, Sweden. Shortly thereafter it moved to Brussels, Belgium. It ran Corollas and Celicas from this location, with some help from Japan for major events. Toyota Team Europe began in February 1975. In August of that year, Hannu Mikkola won TTE's first rally, the 1000 Lakes Rally in a Corolla 1600, where the competition used 2.0 L engines. In 1979 TTE moved 11 of the 20 employees from Brussels to Cologne, where the (Toyota Allee ) was created. This was also the first time it used a Celica Turbo, and TTE won the next two Safaris. In September 1987, TTE moved to a larger premises, in which they still reside. It was also the time they revealed their first four wheel drive car, the Toyota Celica GT-Four, driven by Juha Kankkunen and Kenneth Eriksson. Carlos Sainz won the 1990 FIA World Rally Championship Title for Drivers with ST165. The newer GT-Four, ST185, made its debut at the 1992 Rallye Monte Carlo, culminating in Sainz again winning the title in this year. The ST185 also won the WRC Driver's and Manufacturer's Titles in 1993 with Juha Kankkunen, and in 1994 with Didier Auriol. In 1993 Toyota Motor Corporation bought TTE which then renamed Toyota Motorsport GmbH (TMG). At this time, as a fully owned part of Toyota Motor Corporation, Toyota Motorsport were employing 300 staff from 17 nations. In 1995 TTE was banned for 12 months〔()〕 from the World Rally Championship (WRC) for cheating by designing an illegal air restrictor〔()〕 on the ST205 that included both a bypass mechanism and spring-loaded devices to conceal it from scrutineers. In the 1996 and 1997, despite lack of works team appearance in 1996 due to the ban, TTE supported the Celica ST205 rallied by Italian HF Grifone Team, Toyota Team Sweden, Marlboro Toyota Team Belgium, and Tein Sport in the selected WRC events, before introduced the Corolla WRC in the 1997 Rally of Finland. When they returned to the WRC for 1998, they did so with a Corolla WRC driven by the crews of Carlos Sainz/Luis Moya and Didier Auriol/Denis Giraudet. They finished the season in second overall in both the Drivers' and Constructors' Championships. In 1999, however, the manufacturers championship was taken, the third in TTE's existence. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Toyota Motorsport GmbH」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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