The Toyota COROLLA Rally Car '98 is a rally car produced by Toyota. It first appeared in Gran Turismo 2 and has been featured in all subsequent mainline games up to Gran Turismo 6.
The car appears to be the #9 driven by Didier Auriol, who achieved a 5th place finish in the 1998 WRC season Driver's Championship. From GT3 onwards, the car is shown with livery used at 1998 Rally Catalunya.
In-game description[]
"The WR car that marked Toyota's return to the WRC through its great performance."
In 1997, the Corolla WRC was Toyota's new weapon in bringing the company back to its former WRC glory days. This car was basically the old Celica rally car that was stuffed into a compact European-spec Corolla body. It inherited the Celica's 3S-G 2.0-litre turbo engine and also featured an advanced X-Track 6-speed sequential transmission.
Toyota began race testing the new compact car in the 5th round of the 1997 series, and made its official debut in the 10th round of that year in Finland. Its first full year was in 1998, as the Corolla got off to a quick start, winning the season opener in Monte Carlo with Carlos Sainz behind the steering wheel. Sainz finished second in the Driver's Championship and Toyota placed second in the Manufacturer's Championship.
Toyota, not satisfied with this result, made improvements to the car, most notably to weight distribution and reliability. The following year, a new, improved model was introduced (at the 4th round). The new Corolla was more stable and more durable than its predecessor. Although this season ended with only one victory (at the 11th round in China), Toyota consistently finished in the points and ended up winning the Manufacturer's Title that year. Although the Corolla brought the company back to the top of the WRC, the company pulled out of the rallying in 1999 to partake in a new race venture, Formula 1.
Acquisition[]
| Game | Buy From Location | Credits | Win From Event |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gran Turismo 2 | Toyota Special Showroom | 500,000 | --- |
| Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec | Toyota Dealership | 300,000 | Tahiti Challenge II |
| Gran Turismo 4 | Toyota Legendary Showroom | 750,000 | --- |
| Gran Turismo PSP | Toyota Dealership | 750,000 | --- |
| Gran Turismo 5 | Used Cars Dealership | 292,569 | --- |
| Gran Turismo 6 | Toyota Dealership | 300,000 | --- |
Trivia[]
- Like many of the rally cars that made their transition from GT3 to GT4, the paint scheme on the vehicle was modified between the two games to remove any information about a specific rally:
- The car that appears in-game is based on the #9 vehicle entered at the 1998 Rally Catalunya and driven by Didier Auriol. This is identifiable due to the "MoviStar" stickers above the door numbers, the censored "RACC" logo below the door numbers and the grayed-out driver and co-driver names, which from a distance still clearly read "D. Auriol" and "D. Giraudet" respectively.
- The number plate which is rendered illegible from GT4 onwards reads "K:AM 307", where the colon represents the symbol for Cologne, Germany, the location where Toyota Team Europe's headquarters were based.
- In addition, the wheel model used from GT4 onwards was slightly changed to better reflect the ones used in real life.
- This car also appears in Gran Turismo Concept, but it's unplayable. It does, however, appear as a CPU car.
Pictures[]
.jpg "Toyota Corolla Rally Car '98 (GT2).jpg (200 KB)")
