Toyota planned the GR GT3’s full race programme for 2027, but the car will race this year. Rookie Racing, the team owned by Akio Toyoda, will run it in the last two Super GT races of 2026 at Motegi on 7 and 8 November. It will be the GR GT3’s first race anywhere in the world.
The team announced on 26 October that its GT300 car changes from a Mercedes-AMG GT3 to the “ENEOS X PRIME GR GT3 concept”. Hiroaki Ishiura, one of the drivers who helped develop Toyota’s new GR GT, will share it with young Toyota driver Tokiya Suzuki.
Quick facts
- Car: ENEOS X PRIME GR GT3 concept, No. 32, GT300 class
- Engine: 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 from the GR GT road car
- Team: TEAM ENEOS ROOKIE (Rookie Racing)
- Drivers: Hiroaki Ishiura and Tokiya Suzuki
- Races: Super GT rounds 3 and 8 at Mobility Resort Motegi, 7 and 8 November 2026, 250 km each
- Entry: open entry with special approval, so it can’t score championship points
- Replaces: the team’s Mercedes-AMG GT3
From show stand to the grid
Toyota showed the GR GT3 for the first time on 5 December 2025, next to the GR GT road car and the Lexus LFA Concept. It is built to FIA GT3 rules, with an aluminium frame and the same 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 as the GR GT. Toyota says it is for professional and gentleman drivers who want to win races.
Since then fans have seen it at car shows. Photos 1 to 3 in our gallery show the prototype in February 2026, two of them at Osaka Auto Messe.
The name is older than the car. Toyota first showed a “GR GT3 Concept” at Tokyo Auto Salon in January 2022, and photo 4 shows that car a month later in Osaka. Put the two side by side and the 2026 car looks far more like a real racer, with a mesh grille and four extra lamps in the front bumper.
No points at Motegi, but a full race weekend
The race car is still called a concept, so Rookie Racing runs it as an open entry under special approval. The team says this was possible with help from GTA, the company that runs Super GT. The No. 32 car can’t score championship points at Motegi, so Ishiura and Suzuki give up their own points for the last two races of the year.
Motegi has two races because round 3 replaces the Malaysia round at Sepang, which did not go ahead in June. Round 3 runs on Saturday 7 November. Round 8, the season finale, follows on Sunday 8 November.
Goodbye to the Mercedes
Rookie Racing first raced its Mercedes-AMG GT3 in 2023, in the ST-X class of Super Taikyu. After two seasons and one year off, the team brought it to GT300 for 2026. In six rounds this year it scored 57 points, and its best weekend was a podium at Fuji in round 4.
The team’s release about the change was called “Thank you, AMG GT3!”, and it thanked Mercedes-AMG for its support.
Ishiura knows this car
Hiroaki Ishiura is one of the pro drivers Toyota named when it showed the GR GT and GR GT3. He won the Super Formula title in 2015 and 2017. JDM fans may remember an older Toyota title too: in 2007 he and Kazuya Oshima won the GT300 championship in the apr Toyota MR-S.
Tokiya Suzuki comes from the Toyota Gazoo Racing Driver Challenge programme for young drivers. For him, the first race of a brand-new car is a big weekend.
What comes next in 2027
Toyota’s current GT3 car is the Lexus RC F GT3, and the GR GT3 will take its place. Sportscar365 (13 October) and Dailysportscar (22 October) both report four teams for 2027: Rookie Racing in Super GT, Vasser Sullivan Racing in IMSA, Akkodis ASP in the WEC and KCMG at the Nürburgring. Toyota itself has not announced these teams yet.
So Motegi is a preview. The full programme starts next year, and the cars that race then may look different from the one that starts on 7 November.
Our take
This is our opinion. We like that Toyota is racing a new car in a real championship field instead of hiding it in private tests for another year. Two 250 km races in two days, with pit stops and traffic, will tell the engineers more than any shakedown.
The bad side: the car scores no points, so its results won’t count for anything, and one weekend is not much to judge it on. A brand-new car against GT3 cars that have raced all year could have problems, and nobody should read too much into one lap time. We’d also like to hear more about the V8’s power and the car’s price, and Toyota hasn’t given either.
Your turn
Can the GR GT3 finish in the GT300 top 10 on its first weekend at Motegi? Tell us in the comments.
Sources: Rookie Racing (official release, 26 Oct 2026), Car Watch (26 Oct 2026), Sportscar365 (26 Oct 2026), Dailysportscar (26 Oct 2026), Dailysportscar (2027 plans, 22 Oct 2026), Sportscar365 (13 Oct 2026), Toyota (GR GT and GR GT3 world premiere, 5 Dec 2025), Mynavi News (27 Oct 2026).
Photos: Tokumeigakarinoaoshima (photos 1 and 4; photo 1 CC0, photo 4 CC BY-SA 4.0), Aos.1905 (photo 2, CC BY-SA 4.0) and TTTNIS (photo 3, CC0), via Wikimedia Commons. Photos 1 to 3 show the GR GT3 prototype in February 2026 (photos 1 and 2 at Osaka Auto Messe 2026), photo 4 the 2022 GR GT3 Concept at Osaka Auto Messe 2022. None of them shows the Rookie Racing race car.
