The Toyota Gazoo Racing (TGR) Festival has undoubtedly cemented its reputation as the premiere one make race series in Malaysia. Over six seasons, TGR has provided fans with thrilling wheel to wheel racing where professionals, celebrities as well as amateur drivers compete to be crowned champion of the series at the end of the season.
The series requires teams to compete in a race spec Toyota Vios with all cars having the same state of tune. To level the playing field, drivers who are particularly quick are required to have weight ballasts that slow down their cars.
In the six seasons of racing, the Toyota Vios has been the mainstay of the series. Teams fork out about RM100,000 to buy a race prepared Toyota Vios and this also gives the access to two seasons of racing.
As season six draws to a close, UMW Toyota Motors took the opportunity to officially unveil next season’s race car.
Based on the latest generation Toyota Vios, the new race car shares the same concept as the old – with a stripped out interior and a six-point roll cage that not only offers safety for the driver but also adds stiffness to the car that gives it more agile handling.
Besides the roll cage, the new Vios also sports a new platform that adds further rigidity. This combined with new aerodynamic enhancements make the Vios more planted in corners, improves responsiveness and also provides faster lap times as compared to the previous generation race car.
The new Vios challenger is still powered by the same 1.5-litre engine producing 106PS and 138Nm of torque. The power figures are the same as the street car but the biggest difference is the transmission. While the road going model uses a CVT gearbox, the race car sends power to the front wheels through a 5-speed manual transmission.
The Vios also includes a new race exhaust manifold, exhaust mid-section and muffler, a limited slip differential and race tuned suspension.
Season seven of the Toyota Gazoo Racing Festival will continue next year and interested parties can get in touch with the management of the series at 60163673300.
The complete list of modifications to the Toyota Vios is offered in the table below: