Or Kuroi mokuyōbi in Latin Alphabet script. Black Thursday. And let us just break away from the French casts I’ve shown last couple of days. And fly all the way over to Japan. At Toyota’s. And check out their attempt for a Groupe S Monstre. Not Groupe B but the class that was meant to replace it (but never did)...
Actually we wouldn’t need to go to Japan for this one as it was a project of Toyota Team Europe (TTE), Toyota’s Germany based Motorsport HQ, called Toyota Motorsport GmbH nowadays. And responsible for Toyota’s rally program with up till then the FWD Celica.
Later on TTE was responsible for Toyota’s Formula 1 adventure. But that’s, maybe, for another day. Little is known to this one as Groupe B, and therefor Groupe S as well, was cancelled while this one was being developed. So no homologation specs are known.
Even on the used engine there seems to be no consensus: Either a 503E Group C engine or the 4T-GTE (later found in the WRC ST165 Celica GT-Four) was used. Putting out over 600hp. Even a V6 was considered and rumored to exist but no one ever actually documented it. And all this in a car weighing 750kgs. BOOM!
After Toyota had built 10 prototypes though the entire project was killed. And I never understand why car companies truly kill their prototypes as only two are known to still exist: This black one is kept at Toyota Motorsport GmbH in Cologne, Germany, while there is a white example as well, displayed at the Toyota Mega Web showroom in Tokyo, Japan.
The model itself is a 1/43 by Premium X. I wish they did the white one as I really hate shooting black (sorry for reminding you all every single time I shoot a black car). Or maybe they did and I don’t know. I just ran into this one at my local supplier and when I saw it I had to get it.
And I have no idea what Premium X thought about the engine but I clearly see 6 inlets just there, right? That’s one of the advantages of introducing this as a model: 99% of the buyers probably have no clue if it’s accurate or not anyway, it’s just that rare.
And that’s it for today. Domo Arigatō for making this week as awesome as it is although the vast amount of posts is really killing me. Enjoy today’s blackness, I hope to see some sinister cars today!
Anata no shū o o tanoshimi kudasai!
