Toyota steps up WRC 2027 car testing with new look prototype

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Toyota is continuing its preparations for the 2027 World Rally Championship rules shake up by testing the latest version of prototype car in Spain.

The Japanese brand is the only mainstream manufacturer to date that has committed to building a car to the new technical regulations that will come into force next year.

Under the new FIA framework, cars will be built to a €345,000 cost cap and will be largely based around the current Rally2 cars. They will feature a suspension set out in a double wishbone configuration, with braking and steering systems derived from current Rally2 specifications.

Toyota began testing a prototype car last year, while images and videos of the vehicle in testing first emerged on social media from a Portugal test it was conducting in February. Those images revealed a car featuring a significantly different body shape from the GR Yaris it currently fields in the WRC.

All of Toyota’’s current WRC drivers have tested the car, apart from nine-time world champion Sebastien Ogier, while Toyota has also enlisted the services of 2019 world champion Ott Tanak to carry out development testing.

For now, the team has remained tightlipped on the car’s identity with its head of engineering Kevin Struyf describing it as a ‘prototype” ahead of the team’s final iteration of its 2027 machine.

This week more images and videos have emerged on social media from a test in Spain that features a Toyota 2027 prototype featuring a body shape that falls more into the line with the GR Yaris, while the rear end of the car carries similarities to Toyota’s C-HR road car.

Speaking to Motorsport.com during Rally Croatia earlier this month, Struyf confirmed that the team was in the process of building up a new 'mule' chassis to test following the initial tests of its first prototype.

“It's just a prototype rally car at the moment,” he said. “In 2027 the regulation changed for the first time in rally where the body is quite open, so the choice of the manufacturer is not really clear where we want to go, so it's just a base mule car, a prototype car.

“A lot of people get excited about some model, but there is nothing about any model at the moment, it's just a prototype. Basically, we are continuing the development of the mule car that we have seen in Portugal, and the car will continue to do some tests this month [April].