The Founding of Toyota Team Europe

At a meeting in London in 1972, the first steps were taken in forming a team that would dominate international motor sport. On one side were representatives of Toyota, on the other the tall, quiet Swedish driver Ove Andersson, winner of the previous year’s Monte Carlo Rally. Plans were agreed for him to drive a Toyota Celica on Britain’s RAC Rally that year and a subsequent ninth place finish – well ahead of the more highly-developed works Datsun 240Z entries – ensured the new rally programme would continue.

Toyota relished the success and supported the principle of an international rally campaign, but it was not keen on the demands of worldwide travel to and from its Japanese base such a venture would make. The solution was for Andersson to set up his own workshop, establishing Toyota’s first European team – Andersson Motorsport – in Uppsala, Sweden, early in 1973. Soon the team moved its base to Belgium, preparing and running Corolla and Celica models, with support from Toyota in Japan on major events.

The oil crisis which followed the Yom Kippur War in 1974 forced Toyota to halt all future motor sport development, threatening the existence of Andersson Motorsport. A reprieve was secured thanks to the combined efforts of Toyota’s national sales and marketing partners in Germany, Great Britain, Finland, Belgium and Portugal and help from Toyota Motor Sales in the USA. Large amounts of equipment were shipped to the team, which in 1975 changed its name to Toyota Team Europe (TTE).

Competition success was not far off, with Hannu Mikkola storming to the team’s first victory in Finland’s 1,000 Lakes Rally in a 1600cc Corolla in August the same year. It wasn’t Toyota’s first world championship win – that honour went to Walter Boyce in the United States round of the world championship in 1973 – but it was the beginning of what was to be an exceptional run of world-beating performances.