The Toyota Eagle Takes Off

To capitalise on this success, Toyota established a partnership Gurney in 1989 to develop a new car for IMSA’s GTP category. The subsequent development of this machine as the Toyota Eagle Mark III produced one of the true legends of American motor sport, with record-breaking performances in the early 1990s.

As well as being an all-conquering machine, it was also the last of its kind, as the US sportscar series moved away from the GTP class that had encouraged advances in race engineering and technology.

Dan Gurney’s team designed, built and raced Eagle cars in a great range of American racing series from 1965 to 2000, but none achieved as much as the Mark III: powered by a compact but powerful turbocharged Toyota four-cylinder engine, it dominated the 1992 and 1993 IMSA championships, winning 21 out of the 27 races it entered.

The result was back-to-back driver’s titles for Juan Manuel Fangio II and manufacturer’s titles for Toyota. The run of success included an unmatched 14 straight IMSA victories.

The Toyota Eagle Mark III has a supremely sleek and simple body. One of its key qualities was the way the efficient body shape could easily be adapted to deliver aerodynamic performance to suit different race tracks. Much credit was also due to Toyota Racing Developments, which coaxed around 750bhp out of the compact engine.