The brainchild of Frenchman André de Cortanze, the GT-One was an outstanding piece of engineering. A former Le Mans driver (tenth in 1967 and eighth in 1968 with Alpine), his most remarkable accomplishment was the Peugeot 905 that won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1992 and 1993.

In 1998, the Toyota GT-One started its maiden Le Mans from the front line of the grid. In the hands of Martin Brundle, Emmanuel Collard and Eric Helary, the #28 held the lead for the first three hours  before conceding at nightfall to the #29 sister car driven by Thierry Boutsen, Ralf Kelleners and Geoff Lees. However, the Porsche 911 GT1 took command of the race when both Toyotas suffered technical setbacks. The #28 retired after a race incident in the early hours of the morning.

Then, as the sun rose, the Porsche went off before encountering its own technical issues, enabling the #29 to reclaim the lead. But the transmission didn’t stand the course and the GT-One retired with 90 minutes left on the clock. The remaining GT-One, the #27 with all-Japanese crew Ukyo Katayama, Toshio Suzuki and Keiichi Tsuchiya finished ninth.

The year 1999 saw one of the most impressive grids ever witnessed at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, with the Toyota lining up alongside the likes of Audi, BMW, Mercedes, Nissan and Chrysler.

However, luck was still not on the side of the Japanese. Brundle, Collard and Vincenzo Sospiri in the Toyota Gt-One #1 started in pole position but fell victim of a puncture while an accident ended the race for Boutsen, Kelleners and McNish in the #2. Again, the all-Japanese crew (#3) fared best, clocking the fastest lap in the race and finishing just a lap behind the winning BMW driven by Dalmas, Martini and Winkelhock.

Martin Brundle was impressed by the magnificent car from the start. “From the moment I sat in the mock-up of the chassis in the Cologne factory, I knew this was going to be a very special racing car. How we didn’t win Le Mans in ’98 or ’99, I’ll never know! It was unlucky in many ways, but that race can be so cruel, so often. Overall it was a tremendous experience with the Toyota team though, and that car looks even more special today. I have the (heavy) pole position trophy in my display at home. Whenever I look at it, I don’t think ‘wow, I beat some top cars and drivers that evening’. Rather I think ‘it’s such a pity the brake pedal went very long in the final chicane! That should have been a 3:28!’” [Brundle secured the 1999 pole position in 3:29.930, at an average speed of 233 kph].

Photo (ACO Archives/Christian Vignon) - Pictured here, the car that came second in 1999, driven by Katayama, Suzuki and Tsuchiya. Although it never won Le Mans, the Toyota GT-One made its mark on the race. The design of 2003 winner, the Bentley EXP Speed 8, was based on it.