Toyota Gazoo Racing Europe GmbH

Introduced in time for Le Mans in 1998, the GT-One first appeared at the official testing days for the race held in May. Three GT-Ones appeared, setting the second, fifth, and tenth best times, easily beating out custom built prototypes which were meant to be the superior class. For the race week itself, all three cars performed admirably in qualifying by continuing their quick pace, qualifying second, seventh, and eight, being beaten only by their GT class competitor, Mercedes-Benz. For the race itself, the No. 28 GT-One suffered from a high speed accident halfway through the race, taking it out of competition. The two other entrants continued to fight on, both remaining in the top 10. However, within the closing hours, the higher ranked No. 29 GT-One suffered a gearbox failure while in competition for the race win. Thus Toyota was left to take ninth place in the race with the lone No. 27 entry, which ended the race 25 laps behind the winning Porsche 911 GT1.

Their 1999 24 Hours of Le Mans started bitterly after the team was plagued by multiple Michelin tyre failures, the situation becoming somewhat reminiscent of 1998, when the No. 1 and No. 2 car were retired. Martin Brundle in the No. 1 Toyota suffered a puncture at high speed on the Mulsanne Straight, the cars rear suspension was badly damaged and he was unable to get back to the pits. The No. 2 Toyota being driven by Thierry Boutsen was next to go when he suffered a high speed crash under the Dunlop bridge due to a rapid deflation. The car was destroyed and Boutsen suffered injury to his lower back. At the break of dawn, the No. 15 BMW was almost a lap ahead of the No. 3 Toyota which had been quietly cruising around at a steady pace. With this sniff of a win Ukyo Katayama put the foot down in the Toyota and set the fastest lap of the race. He narrowed the gap to less than a minute till again a tyre blowout befell the Toyota team again. Katayama was however able to return to the pits for new tyres and continued. He managed to finish second after a valiant effort placing first in the GT-P class. However, they fell short of the overall victory at Le Mans, which would have made them only the second Japanese manufacturer to get an overall win (Mazda being the first in 1991).

The GT-One raced only once more, a single entrant appearing in the 1999 Le Mans Fuji 1000km. Although the race mostly consisted of Japanese teams, thus leaving out most of the manufacturers that had competed at Le Mans, Toyota still had to compete against rival Nissan, who also entered their R391. In the end the GT-One would fall short once again, finishing second and only one lap behind the winning R391.

The GT-One program was not continued into 2000, Toyota instead turning TTE into leaders of the new Toyota F1 team. This would mark a hiatus in Toyota's attempts at Le Mans until the 2012 season, over a decade later, when Toyota decided to once again contest at the top tier of sports car racing.

Toyota TS030 Hybrid LMP1

In October 2011, Toyota announced its return to Le Mans in 2012, with a hybrid-powered Le Mans Prototype, sporting a petrol engine similar to that found in their customer P1 car. The car would be entered in the inaugural season of the FIA World Endurance Championship, though it would miss the first round of the series.

Toyota suffered a severe setback with a crash in late April preventing the debut of the car at the 2012 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, but managed to get two TS030s ready by Le Mans. Unfortunately, neither car finished the race: the #8 car being driven by Anthony Davidson suffered a massive crash with a Ferrari 458 (which also fractured two of Davidson's vertebrae), while the No. 7 car hit the DeltaWing and later retired with an engine failure.

Toyota continued to compete in the rest of the WEC season with a single car, collecting three wins including the 6 Hours of Fuji.

At the 2013 24 Hours of Le Mans Toyota achieved its fourth second-place finish at Le Mans with a revised Toyota TS030 driven by Stéphane Sarrazin, Anthony Davidson and Sébastien Buemi. The sister car finished in fourth several laps down.

Toyota finished the WEC season in second place again, taking two wins at rain-shortened Fuji and Shanghai.

Toyota announced in October 2013 that it would continue racing in the World Endurance Championship in 2014. In order to comply with new-for-2014 LMP1 rules, Toyota revealed its new car, the Toyota TS040 Hybrid. The car has a 3.7L V8 normally aspirated petrol engine powering the rear wheels, and regenerative-braking devices at both axles to allow temporary four-wheel drive.

The Toyota TS050 Hybrid was developed for the 2016 FIA World Endurance Championship. It is powered by a 2.4L V6 twin-turbo petrol engine and a 8-megajoule battery hybrid system.

The Toyota GR010 Hybrid will compete at the 2021 FIA World Endurance Championship under the new Le Mans Hypercar regulations. It has a 3.5L V6 twin-turbo petrol engine connected to the real wheels, and a battery hybrid system connected to the front wheels.[7]

The company revealed in its annual review that it has developed an electric racing car based on the Radical sportscar, along with Cologne company e-Wolf. The TMG EV P001 was developed using knowledge Toyota Motorsport gained during its KERS development for F1 and used some of the company's dedicated engine dynos, including an 'EV component test rig'. In August 2011 it set a new lap record for an electric vehicle at the Nürburgring Nordschleife of 7mins 47.794secs.[16] The company says this proves the ability of their technology to be competitive in racing, and that they would like to enter an electric championship.[17]