Toyota GR GT becomes instant hit as US allocation vanishes

Toyota’s highly anticipated GR GT supercar has already sold out its initial US allocation, with demand far exceeding the number of cars the automaker plans to offer in the market, The Drive reports.

Speaking at Laguna Seca during the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion, Toyota Senior Vice President of Automotive Operations Andrew Gilleland said the company has allocated between 200 and 250 GR GT units for the US market.

“We’re not going to have enough to meet demand, and that’s by design,” Gilleland said. “It’s a passion project and made because Akio [Toyoda] wants a world-class performance car. We don’t want to sell cars to flippers, we only want people who are going to drive it. The first allocation is already sold.”

Gilleland clarified that the 200-to-250 figure applies exclusively to the US and does not represent the model’s total global production. Toyota has not disclosed the expected worldwide production volume for the first manufacturing run.

Demand for the GR GT was evident during The Quail event earlier in Monterey Car Week, where more than 150 prospective buyers reportedly met with Toyota representatives to configure their cars, despite the automaker not yet formally accepting orders.

“The interest is huge,” Gilleland said.

Several key members of the GR GT and GR GT3 development teams also traveled from Japan to attend the event. Toyota used the occasion to photograph the road-going GR GT alongside its GT3 racing counterpart at Laguna Seca.

Development drivers Tatsuya Kataoka and Jack Hawksworth discussed the cars’ development and emphasized their drivability, reliability and the close technical relationship between the road car and its GT3 sibling.

“I hope that people can sense the intensity of the development and how passionate Toyota has been so far about the project,” Kataoka said.

The GR GT is expected to reach customers next year. The supercar is set to feature a 4.0-liter twin-turbocharged hybrid V8 targeting more than 640 horsepower, paired with a rear-mounted eight-speed transmission featuring a triple-wet-clutch system.

By Vafa Guliyeva