Toyota Gazoo Racing and SVR create the ultimate man cave

Toyota Gazoo Racing and SVR create the ultimate man cave

Motorsport is in South African blood, and when it comes to off-road rockets and rapid Corollas, no brand is pushing the pencil further than Toyota. To ensure the brand's cutting-edge efforts remain ahead of the competition, the brand's new motorsports hub in Kyalami is a racer's dream.

This new state-of-the-art facility is a 12,500m² facility that ensures SVR, and Gazoo Racing South Africa can produce world-class motorsport engineering, fabrication and equipment all from their new base in Kyalami. In my opinion, there is no better location for such a facility. SVR, previously known as Hallspeed, with Shameer Variawa at the helm, is the team responsible for Toyota’s racing activities in South Africa.

If we take a brief walk through this meticulously designed project, there are various bays for different racing disciplines; you are immediately met with the famous Toyota Rally Raid cars in the first three bays. It's here where the current and next generations of Dakar cars are repaired, prepped, and improved for the various races around the globe.

Behind this workshop are the track tools, more specifically, the GTC Corollas, while the various GR86, GR Corolla, and GR Yaris cup cars that compete on our favourite local circuits take up the remaining floor space. The local rally team is also likely to move in very soon.

In total, this facility can house and prep 20 race cars at a time. But the inherent focus for this facility is to build, prep and release various W2RC vehicles (Dakar-spec Hiluxes) to send off to racing teams from around the world. With such remarkable enthusiasm for the locally manufactured rally raid vehicles, this facility is prepared for anything SVR and TGRSA can dream up, so this story takes a rather local tone.

The gear list is nearly endless, with numerous CNC machines for custom fabrication, which includes 3-, 4- and 5-axis CNC machines. There is also a dedicated damper laboratory and engine room that includes an in-house dyno. This massive warehouse now stands as a global leader in rally raid facilities.

At this time, the project still needs a few months to finish the administration department and finalise a few design touches, but from what I saw, operations are already underway, and it's nothing short of impressive. But this does raise an interesting question as to its location. Traditionally, the Toyota team have tested and adapted their cars in Malalane, Mpumalanga, so I expect testing to move closer to home, possibly near Sun City.

Glen Crompton, Vice President of Marketing at Toyota South Africa Motors, stated, “The opening of the new SVR Motorsport Hub represents the third chapter for Toyota’s motorsport exploits and Toyota Gazoo Racing South Africa."

Racing is clearly on the up, especially for the local Toyota team, and it's encouraging to see a local brand with such a heavy commitment to the sport. Yes, it could be considered a pay-to-play sport, and if that is the case, then the TGRSA team has the upper hand. Hopefully, this project will inspire other racing teams from various disciplines to see how innovative South Africans can be, resulting in future investments. And it's all found right around the corner of South Africa's home of racing, Kyalami.

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