Toyota TS010 Le Mans

In 1992, the Toyota TS010 finishes second at Le Mans and Toyota wins the constructors title in Group C of the All Japan Sports Prototype Championship (JSPC).

Due to a change in the regulations of the World Sportscar Championship, Toyota in 1991 replaces the Group C cars with 3.6 liter turbocharged V8s with 3.5 liter naturally aspirated V10s. These new engines also require a new chassis, which is developed by Tony Southgate, former designer at Tom Walkinshaw Racing. At the end of 1991 the car makes its debut at the Autopolis circuit in Japan, where the TS-010 finishes sixth overall in the final race of the WSC. In 1992 the car finishes second at Le Mans and Toyota wins the Group C constructors title in the All Japan Sports Prototype Championship (JSPC). In the WSC that year, Dutch driver Jan Lammers takes the TS-010 to second place at Suzuka and third place at Magny-Cours. In 1993 neither the WSC nor the JSPC is held, so Toyota enters only for Le Mans, for which three new, lighter and smaller chassis are built. The engine has also become more powerful: the V10 now delivers 600 hp, allowing the car to reach a top speed of almost 350 km/h. Drivers Eddie Irvine, Masanori Sekiya and Toshio Suzuki take fourth place in the overall standings; a second TS-010 finishes eighth.