Presentation by Simon Humphries, Operating Officer, Chief Branding Officer
Good morning, everybody.
Thank you for taking the time and hassle of coming all this method to the Toyota Higashi-Fuji Plant right here in Eastern Japan.
Now, initially, this was a press store.
And as a few of chances are you’ll know, it was the manufacturing facility the place Shoichiro Toyoda and Nakamura Kenya created the primary Century in 1967.
The spirit of invention that was born right here is now reborn in the present day because the Inventor’s Garage of Woven City, a facility for creating the long run.
Now in the present day might be a celebration not solely of invention however of one thing that I do know all of us love: a celebration of the automotive.
The pleasure, the fun, the love for velocity, all issues I believe, everybody on this room and everybody watching on-line shares a ardour for.
But as with many issues in life, a narrative of power begins with a narrative of what’s known as in Japanese kuyashisa―humiliation.
And I wish to inform you about this from two viewpoints.
I’ve been working as a designer for 36 years, and I can actually say that as a designer, there may be nothing extra painful than being informed that what you’ve gotten put your coronary heart and soul into is boring.
Fourteen years in the past at Pebble Beach in America, that’s precisely what occurred when Akio was informed on his go to there, “Lexus is boring.”
That feeling of humiliation was a turning level, and it grew to become a supply of dedication.
After that, Akio stood up and made a promise: “No more boring cars.”
So after we went to seek the advice of with him about how we might current this automotive at Pebble Beach this 12 months, his reply was quite simple:
“Just put it out there and let it speak for itself.”
And that’s precisely what we did.
With no rationalization, we let folks type their very own opinions.
And I’m more than happy to share that at Pebble Beach this 12 months, not one individual mentioned that Lexus was boring!
To be modern, adventurous, authentic, to assist our prospects DISCOVER…. that is what Lexus was born to do.
And with this automotive, we needed our prospects to find a brand new stage of sensory immersion.
For the automobile behind me, this meant massive breakthroughs, dramatic proportions, and packaging innovation.
Just have a look at the stance…that rear view… simply stunning.
And all below 1,200 mm in top.
For any sports activities automotive, it is a enormous problem and an enormous accomplishment.
And when this automotive is lastly completed, it’ll reply Akio’s final request: to utterly redefine the sound of an electrical sports activities automotive.
We designed this automotive to actually converse for itself, however that is not just by likelihood.
Because the Lexus Sports that you simply see right here owes its existence to a different story.
And that brings me to the second story of humiliation―this time, on the race observe.
I bear in mind Akio telling me that at Nürburgring 20 years in the past, he had an expertise that he could not overlook.
It wasn’t about being overtaken; it wasn’t about not coming first.
Rather, he may see that different producers have been prioritizing racing.
They have been utilizing the event to nurture not solely new expertise and new merchandise but in addition the individuals who make them.
Camouflaged prototypes of automobiles by no means seen earlier than being put by way of their paces on the world’s most unforgiving observe.
As an organization, Toyota at the moment wasn’t even attempting to construct a automotive able to racing the Nürburgring.
In reality, we did not also have a sports activities automotive on sale.
So Akio, alongside check driver Naruse-san, not solely ended up driving an previous Supra however doing so below the alias of Morizo together with his personal unknown personal staff, Gazoo Racing.
Every time he yielded to yet one more improvement prototype, it was as in the event that they have been saying,
“You guys at Toyota, there’s no way you could ever build a car like this!”
Well, that was then. This is now.
So, what do you consider these?
The GR GT and its racecar sibling, the GR GT3, might be joined by the brand new Lexus LFA Concept right here to type the sports activities automotive apex for each Lexus and GR.
All from one race-bred platform, true to GR’s promise of pushing the boundaries for higher, contributing to your entire Toyota Group.
And all are a part of Akio’s promise of no extra boring automobiles.
Now, the GT3 class, the place the story of those three automobiles begins, is all about making automobiles for individuals who wish to win―each professionals and privateer racers.
For all people, all of it begins with velocity. Without velocity, there may be nothing.
For the GR GT3 racecar, with a 4-liter V8 twin-turbo engine, a inflexible aluminum spaceframe, an extremely low heart of gravity, state-of-the-art aerodynamics―all of the crucial components are in place.
But velocity in itself shouldn’t be all the pieces.
The race is way more than the house straight. The actual artwork is the way you management that velocity.
In a real-life scenario, as our Master Driver, Morizo, likes to say, all of it comes right down to kaiwa―the dialog between driver and automotive.
This GR GT3 is a automotive engineered to offer you confidence in all conditions.
To really feel reassured by that dialog, even on the limits, within the severest of conditions.
It’s all in regards to the suggestions the automotive provides you to information you in making split-second selections.
Fluent communication, figuring out how the automotive will reply in order that there aren’t any misunderstandings, bringing out the most effective in your talents, so you may push the automotive and your self even additional.
The GR GT speaks to each kinds of driver―the skilled driver and the leisure driver―whether or not that’s two totally different folks otherwise you and your alter ego.
Now, an integral a part of any dialog with a automotive is sound.
Not solely throughout acceleration, however deceleration and braking.
To perceive the significance of this, look no additional than half-hour’ drive from right here to Fuji Speedway and the transition from the house straight into the tight first nook.
To brake as late as potential, deeper, sooner, and energy out with confidence following your supreme line.
This will be the first time we’ve got centered not solely on the sound a automotive makes once you put your foot down, but in addition the visceral, guttural sound once you take your foot off.
But the dialog you’ve gotten on an abnormal avenue is totally different.
The GR GT street automotive, with that very same V8 twin-turbo however with hybrid energy, shares the DNA of its racing counterpart greater than any automotive we’ve got ever made.
For this, the staff labored not solely on the limits of a automotive however on the limits of the event course of―manufacturing automotive check drivers working hand in hand with racing drivers.
This is a circuit-ready, on a regular basis driver―wild on a observe day, straightforward to drive round city.
Take it for a stint on the observe and cease at a pleasant restaurant on the way in which dwelling.
From dynamics all the way in which right down to minute selections in seating place, it is a automotive designed to cowl all of the bases.
Akio loves motorsports.
In a race staff, there isn’t any hierarchy.
When it comes right down to it, everyone seems to be within the pits collectively.
These three automobiles will work as a staff to carry the emotion of driving to each veteran racers and new generations of automotive lovers.
Whether it is the V8 twin-turbo within the GR GT3 or the hybrid model within the GR GT, each operating on standard gasoline or e-fuel, or an electrical future within the LFA, these automobiles signify a dedication to maintain the enjoyment of driving on the limits of human capabilities alive for the subsequent era.
Nurturing expertise and folks to create a brand new period of driving euphoria―simply as Naruse-san introduced his knowledge from the Toyota 2000GT to the LFA and handed it on to a brand new era of check drivers.
Ladies and gents, during the last 14 years, not solely Lexus and GR however all Toyota Group manufacturers have undergone a change.
The emotional aspect has come again to the corporate.
Whether that is when it comes to driving dynamics, engineering, manufacturing, or my discipline of design, there was a basic change within the firm mindset.
How a automotive seems and how a automotive feels―it is all subjective.
But within the pits, as one staff with Akio as Master Driver, we’ve got the license to do what must be accomplished to translate every automotive’s story into actuality.
And despite the fact that he is pushing 70, this 12 months Akio Toyoda went again to the place all of it started 20 years in the past, driving within the Nürburgring 24 Hours.
And I can assure one factor:
With these three automobiles in entrance of him, he won’t be able to remain away for a lot of extra years to return.
Equally, there was no means he may miss the possibility to be right here in the present day.
Ladies and gents, Akio Toyoda!