The heyday of the All-Japan Grand Touring Championship marked a time when tuner culture hummed at fever pitch and racing machines were immortalized in the pixels of Gran Turismo. The A80 Toyota Supra was yet to be catapulted into movie stardom in the Fast & Furious franchise, but those who followed it through “import” mags and pirated DVDs already knew of its racing exploits across the Pacific. Now one of those ex-JGTC cars is about to hit the auction block. What will it go for?
The A80 Supra was one of the three GT500 greats, alongside the legendary Honda NSX and Nissan Skyline GT-R. In its much-adored Castrol livery it won the 1997 GT500-class Drivers and Teams Championships, then claimed the 1999 Teams Championship again. Post turn of the century the Supra prevailed in the Drivers Championship back-to-back in 2001 and 2002 wearing Cerumo and Esso livery, respectively.
According to the Bingo Sports auction house that is facilitating the upcoming sale of the former JGTC racer, the Supra is believed to be an ex-Cerumo car, first appearing in 2000 as the No.38 FK/Massimo car driven by Hironori Takeuchi and Yuji Tachikawa. That year the car scored two podium finishes, placing third at Fuji Speedway in Round 2 and first at TI Circuit Aida in Round 5. That earned enough points to take an overall fifth in the standings that year.
In 2001 it was re-skinned as the No.33 Team Cerumo car with Zenrin sponsorship. Despite singer Masahiro Kondo co-piloting with former Formula 1 driver Ukyo Katayama, the Supra stayed at the back of the pack. It finished in double digit position in all but one race for the season. Though the Supra is known for its legendary 2JZ straight-six, the JGTC cars never ran with that engine. Toyota determined that the turbocharged 2.0-liter 3S-GTE four-cylinder made more than enough power.
After that, the car was reportedly leased to brake manufacturer Project μ for promotions. In 2002 the team moved into the GT500 class with their own Supra chassis, after having campaigned an AE86 and Toyota MR-S in the GT300 in prior seasons. The earlier Zenrin car was given the same Project μ Espelir livery as their race car for use as a show car. The following year all Supras would switch to the naturally aspirated 3UZ-FE 5.2-liter V8.
In another video, remnants of the the Project μ Espelir livery can still be seen. It’s narrated by none other than driver Hironori Takeuchi himself, who raced the car in 2001. Takeuchi went on to win the 2001 Drivers Championship in the au Cerumo Supra, No.38 but a different chassis.
In present day the Supra has been stripped of all remnants of past liveries, looking like a body-in-white. The 3S engine is gone, as is the H-pattern gearbox, so currently it’s just a roller. However, it does come with the official JGTC roll cage, driver-controlled levers to adjust brake proportioning and aero, and the imprint of Ukyo Katayama. How many Supras can claim to have been raced in anger by an actual F1 driver?
The actual championship-winning JGTC Supras have all been squirreled away. They are occasionally shown to the public at events such as the Tokyo Auto Salon. While the car for sale isn’t the car that took home a trophy for Toyota, it was born in the same garage as those that did. With bone-stock A80 Supras having crested the six-figure mark and the ridiculous movie car having sold for $550,000, surely there are some Supra collectors obsessed enough to drop some serious coin on an actual JGTC race car. One question remains: which livery would you restore it with?
Without a driveline, this roller shouldn’t fetch too much….but some crazy out there may have something interesting to install and find this gold! Cool car, love it.
If money and space weren’t an issue, I would happily pay whatever the cost ended up being being a piece of motorsport history.
However, given the condition and lack of championships this car in particular is/has, I don’t believe it will fetch the 6 figure price tag one would think. Realistically, I see 65k USD at best.
A decent chunk of that being historical value.