Castrol AAR Toyota GT-One ALMS '99 What-If Concept

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---Castrol AAR Toyota GT-One ALMS 1999

---Livery Concept-What-If

In the 1990's after the collapse of Group C, the FIA then came up with newly minted GT1 category, which was meant by the organization BPR to bring in privateer entries for endurance races. However the cars brought in, from Venturini, privateer Porsche's, Marcos, and even a Morgan (!) at one point, migrated to the world famous pseudo-prototype beasts such as the CLK GTR, 911 GT1-98, and a Wide Lotus Elise GT1.

The car that Toyota came out with however, the Toyota GT-One, is the culmination of the absurdity of those regulations. Made with only one example made for homologation, and famously using the fuel tank capacity and side as dimensions for luggage space, it was quite literally skating and/or pirouetting around the spirit of the regulations. Sporting a carbon tub chassis, a 3.6 Litre Twin Turbo V8, massive drag-reducing bodywork, and a reported top speed of 230 mph, it was Toyota's latest attempt to conquer that which eluded them for so long: the 24 Hures of Le Mans.

The car was only run, through out it's history, by the factory Toyota Team Europe. It was not run outside of France in 1998/1999 or the Fuji 1000km later in 1999, and at the end of the year, the Le Mans program was discontinued for the development of the new veneering F1 project. However, the car could've had more running time in 1999 if taken under the wing of another team.

Enter AAR (All American Racing) run by Dan Gurney. Gaining notoriety especially with Toyota with their dominant Eagle Mk III and their Eagle 987/997 indycars. Plastered with Castrol sponsorship (from their PPG Indycar team) and drivers Alex Barron, Raul Boesel and Andrea Montermini behind the wheel, t would probably be entered into that year's Sebring 12 Hours with TTE personnel helping however they can.

The car would be running against the then-new BMW V12 LMR, Panoz Roadster LMP and new Audi R8 LMP, as well as countless older cars like the Riley & Scott MK II and Ferrari 333SP. Given how punishing the race can be, it would be interesting of how to see it fare against the newly-emerging iron for the great Floridian 12 Hours, as well as the big on in June of that year.