As many as four names familiar to endurance fans were honoured this year at the Professional Motorsport World Expo in Cologne, city of the European headquarters of the sporting branch of Toyota, winner of the Car of the Year award for the TS050 Hybrid among 13 nominees. After a disastrous 2015, the Japanese manufacturer - World Endurance Constructors Champion in 2014 - was able to bounce back with a complete overhaul for the 2016 season. It was a self-induced challenge which allowed Toyota to lead the last edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans before breaking down with Kazuki Nakajima at the wheel going into the final lap, leaving the victory to Porsche.

In addition to the Toyota TS050 Hybrid, the Ford GT was also a nominee for Car of the Year. Though it failed to win that award, Dave Pericak's crew racked up two prizes with Ford Performance, which he manages, winning Team of the Year, and the designer of the Ford GT, developed in partnership with Canadian company Multimatic, taking home Engineer of the Year. George Howard-Chappell also designed the Ferrari Maranello class winner at Le Mans in 2003 and the Aston Martin DBR9 class winner in 2007 and 2008 when he was with Prodrive in the U.K.

Photo : The Toyota TS050 Hybrid, winner of the Car of the Year award at Cologne, Germany.