SUBSCRIBE TO THE
MAGAZINE NOW
Facebook-f Instagram

Toyota knew how to throw endless dollars at a race engine

6 June, 2017


 

The ‘90s saw Toyota produce some of their finest engine work — it spawned the 1JZ and 2JZ, beams 3S-GE, 20-valve 4A-GE silver- and black-top … the list can go on forever.

But we’re willing to bet a decent chunk of money (the $3.20 of change sitting in my desk drawer) one that has yet to blip up on your radar is the R36V.

But that’s just a byproduct of  racing engines from Japanese carmakers not getting the same kind of love as their road-going counterparts, and hey, that makes perfect sense – Johnny Tuner may 4A-GE swap their Corolla, or cram a 1J into their Cressida, but they’re highly unlikely to get their hands on a near-on 1000hp powerplant like that of the R36V.

The R36V was based on a previously built 3.2-litre version (R32V) that was introduced by Toyota in 1990 for the Le Mans 24-hour race, World Sports Prototype Car Championship (WSPC) and the All Japan Sports Prototype Championship (JSPC). While Toyota had previously been campaigning a 3S-GE, restrictions on race fuels meant Toyota wanted to look towards larger displacement hearts.

This spawned the development of the R32V, and although it saw victory in 1988 and 1989, Toyota deemed it impossible to win a JSPC championship with. Subsequently, a revised 3.6-litre version known as the R36V was introduced as its replacement in 1990. Chuffed up by a CT 26RT twin-scroll snail and pumping out upwards of 800ps, it was crammed into the 92C-V prototype car. Three cars were entered into the 1992 All Japan Sports Prototype Championship and managed four top-three finishes out of the six races, but did not manage a win —  eventually allowing Nissan to win the championship title for the third consecutive year.

With the demise of Group C 1994, Toyota updated two cars and ran them as the Toyota 94C-V under the new 24 Hour of Le Mans  LMP1 class. Achieving a one-two finish for their class, car #1 finished second overall — almost winning Le Mans.

While it raced at other events throughout its lifespan, its last outing of note was the
Suzuka 1000km in 1994 where it was retired due to mechanical issues.

The R36V was one of those mind-bending never-to-be-repeated projects during Japan’s bubble years, where automakers threw insane amounts of money at race engines and they chassis the adorned. It was truly a time of glory-seeking race cars that we hadn’t seen before, and never really have since.

 

Design accord

28 March, 2025

You can’t get much more of an art deco car than a Cord — so much so that new owners, Paul McCarthy and his wife, Sarah Selwood, went ahead and took their Beverly 812 to Napier’s Art Deco Festival this year, even though the festival itself had been cancelled.
“We took delivery of the vehicle 12 days before heading off to Napier. We still drove it all around at the festival,” says Paul.
The utterly distinctive chrome grille wrapping around the Cord’s famous coffin-shaped nose, and the pure, clean lines of the front wing wheel arches, thanks to its retractable headlamps, are the essence of deco. This model, the Beverly, has the finishing touch of the bustle boot that is missing from the Westchester saloon.

Motorman: When New Zealand built the Model T Ford

21 March, 2025

History has a way of surrounding us, hidden in plain sight. I was one of a group who had been working for years in an editorial office in Augustus Terrace in the Auckland city fringe suburb of Parnell who had no idea that motoring history had been made right around the corner. Our premises actually backed onto a century-old brick building in adjacent Fox Street that had seen the wonder of the age, brand-new Model T Fords, rolling out the front door seven decades earlier.
Today, the building is an award-winning two-level office building, comprehensively refurbished in 2012. Happily, 6 Fox Street honours its one time claim to motoring fame. Next door are eight upmarket loft apartments, also on the site where the Fords were completed. Elsewhere, at 89 Courtenay Place, Wellington, and Sophia Street, Timaru, semi-knocked-down Model Ts were also being put together, completing a motor vehicle that would later become known as the Car of the Century.