► We visit the Toyota Collection at TGR-E
► Based in Cologne, also hosts WEC and Rally programmes
► Former home of the F1 programme

Toyota’s relationship with motorsport has always been rich and varied, if not patchy. Roles in rallying, F1 and prototype racing helped lay the foundations that have formed the DNA of wilder cars like the GR86, GR Yaris and Supra, and even more distant relatives like the Lexus LFA. If you want to see that story in one place, there’s no better place than the Toyota Collection in Cologne.

Tucked away beneath one of the two wind tunnels still in use, the Toyota Collection is located deep inside Toyota Gazoo Racing Europe, home of the brand’s WEC and Rally programs. Originally founded in 1979 by Toyota rally driver Ove Andersson as Andersson Motorsport, the company eventually moved to Cologne due to its proximity to the road car office and Brussels. There it became a base for Toyota Team Europe, and later a vast facility and de facto headquarters for almost all Toyota racing.

We arrange a tour to see the collection, but first we wait at the front desk so someone can put a sticker on his phone by the receptionist. It’s a reminder that this is still a cutting-edge, active factory with sensitive information; there’s just a museum in the middle.

Once inside, the sheer scale of the facility becomes apparent. There are two wind tunnels here, one 60% (the smallest size with real-life correlation) and one full-size, both used by Toyota, a few undisclosed MotoGP teams and, until recently, McLaren (although Woking’s new one is now up and running). There’s also a state-of-the-art simulation rig that endurance riders use to test setups and familiarise themselves with the tracks between races.

Many of the facilities here are a product of its F1 days. Toyota invested a reported £450m into the F1 project in 2008 alone, employing up to 1,200 people at its peak. Fast forward to 2024 and the three cars in the lobby now represent Cologne’s core projects. WEC chassis are built here (engines are in Japan), rally cars are assembled here (the team is run from Finland) and customer race cars such as the Supra GT4 are also built here. It sounds like a lot, but the factory employs just 450 staff – a skeleton crew compared to its F1 days.

After the lobby, there are only a few corridors to go through before our guide Yannick leads us past a room displaying the racing overalls of the site’s founder, Andersson. Originally from Cologne, he joined after an apprenticeship; he explains that it is a highly competitive but attractive route into motorsport for those from the region. He also tells us that Andersson himself was a huge rally fan and was a big part of Toyota’s vision for motorsport in Europe until his death in a rally accident in 2008.

Collection

There is something informal and secret about the Toyota Collection. We walk down another corridor; Yannick swipes his pass, and when the floor-to-ceiling factory doors open, we feel like we’re somewhere we’re not supposed to be. This isn’t a museum, it’s a place where Toyota keeps its old racing machines – just below the tools it uses to create its current machines.

There are no real information panels or glass boxes around these displays, and the space feels like the equivalent of the strange spare room inside Toyota Motorsport’s cauldron. Above the cars, shimmering networks of pipes and cables snake up and down, some of them extending below head level.

Getting to know the GT-One in person

For a die-hard video game fan like me, this is Gran Turismo made real – a shrine to the hours I spent on 128-bit tracks on the PS2. And the real reason for this pilgrimage? The two Toyota GT-Ones I spotted in the far corner. Both the ’98 and ’99 cars are here, and both have achieved legendary status for me and many other gamers.

Known as a game-breaker on the PlayStation due to the immense grunt it could produce (when cranked all the way up), the GT-One’s fearsome power, aerodynamic alien-like body, and classic looks left an indelible mark on my childhood. In person, it’s even more striking.

Next to the newer, more aero-capable and considerably more successful prototypes, it looks not so much elegant as it used to, its curves draped over the chassis as if someone had draped a silk sheet over it. It’s not shrink-wrapped like the modern WEC cars, but it looks even better for it. Its sweeping lines aren’t really ruined by winglets or vortex generators; even the pipes of the 90-degree V8 protrude from just below the body, past the primitive-looking taillights. Nothing screams race car more. I’m all for progress, but this looks special.

In competition, this car never reached the heights of the GR010 or the TS050, which was just a few steps ahead. The GT-One achieved just two podiums in its two-year run, and Toyota’s final era in endurance racing (announced in 2012 to make more use of F1 facilities) was considerably more successful. The TS050 achieved three consecutive Le Mans victories, while the GR010 won only once at Le Mans, but won three consecutive drivers’ and manufacturers’ championships.

Yannick tells me that the street version of the GT-One is usually here too; he reminds me that this was one of the last Le Mans cars to require homologation to race. It borders on a classic now, but when we open the door and see the relatively low-tech cockpit, it feels dated.

Images and video taken, now it’s time to move on to the second reason we’re here; a look at the marque’s F1 programme. The cars that came before and after the team’s official time in F1 are lined up in a particularly low section of the field, starting with a blocky TF101 test mule from 2001 and running all the way up to a sleek, never-raced Toyota TF110 wrapped in carbon fibre. One of two chassis built for the 2010 season, it serves as a memorial to the team’s abrupt withdrawal from the sport at the end of 2009.

It’s the ultimate example of ‘what could have been’ at the facility – but the theme screams loudly throughout my tour. Despite its astronomical budget, Toyota has no wins and just thirteen podiums in its eight-year stint in F1. In the week I visited, vague rumours suggested that the Haas team would be hiring Toyota to help with its F1 programme from 2026 onwards – with the brand potentially returning as an OEM sooner rather than later. Let’s hope so.

Toyota’s rallying history is also represented here, including the championship-winning Carlos Sainz Sr Corolla from 1999, the 1991 Sainz-driven Celica ST165 and Celica TA64, among others. Just like F1 and endurance cars, there has been a strong technological advancement over the years as new movements emerge – but there is a naivety to the older models. Still, modern rallying is fascinating in its own way.

A reasonable amount of time has passed and it’s time to stop working on the collection. I could have stayed there for hours. As I was leaving, I was reminded of the original purpose of the place: the 60% wind tunnel was momentarily lit, and our guide told me that it used to operate almost 24 hours a day, with teams of technicians working in shifts. As you might expect, Yannick is not allowed to say what it’s currently used for.

See for yourself

The Toyota Collection feels like an intimate storage facility nestled in the bowels of an active racing team – and that’s because it is – but, incredibly, it’s open to the public. If you’re a fan of motorsport or Gran Turismo, it’s worth a visit for the rarity of some of the items on display, and the opportunity to catch a glimpse of an active racing team’s factory. Throw in the imposing Gothic cathedral in the city centre and a few glasses of Kölsch, and you’ve got it.

For more detailed information, you can visit Toyota’s website here.