Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Dakar Rally winner, the GR DKR Hilux T1+, wowed crowds at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in June 2022. Mathieu Baumel, winning Dakar Rally co-driver alongside Nasser Al-Attiyah, and engineer Christophe Martin gave us a tour of the vehicle.

The GR DKR Hilux T1+ represents the biggest technological leap for the Toyota Dakar programme since its inception in 2011. The GR DKR Hilux T1+ is powered by a new 3.5-litre twin-turbo V6 engine, developed from the unit featured in the new road-going Toyota Land Cruiser 300 GR Sport.

It delivers more torque than the rally Hilux’s previous engine, and also saves weight; overall vehicle weight has been increased, however, to two tonnes, in line with 2022 racing regulations. Engine performance is also governed by official FIA regulations, so maximum power and torque are 400bhp/298kW and 660Nm respectively – well within the capabilities of the production engine.

The excellent capabilities of the twin-turbo V6 allowed the team to work with it in stock form. It uses standard Toyota turbochargers and the intercooler, with its orientation modified for the race car, is also a standard part and inherently extremely efficient.

Adjustment to the suspension system has increased travel from 280 to 350mm. This helps the driver to make the most of the performance of the new tyres, which have increased in both size, from 32 to 37 inches, and width, from 245 to 320mm.

The tyres are fitted to new aluminium wheels; these have been an integral part of the T1+’s development and have been left in their natural metal finish, which benefits heat radiation.

Under the skin, the racing Hilux has retained the mid-engine layout that has been in use since Dakar 2016, and its core cockpit layout. The car now carries just two spare tyres rather than the three that had been permitted in the past, in line with changes in the regulations for the T1+ category.

The car competes in the 2022 FIA World Rally-Raid Championship and has adopted the Toyota Gazoo Racing livery shared by the World Rally Championship and World Endurance Championship cars.

The famous GR lettering style has now been adopted by all three World Championship teams, reinforcing the link between Toyota’s race cars, and its new stable of GR road-going sports models.

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