GT40 P/1077
The year is 1968.
JW Automotive had recently rebuilt their Mirage M1's to a lightweight GT40, aimed to enter the Sportscar Championship of '68. A total of 4 chassis were completed, one of which was bought by Yamaha and shipped to Japan in April 1968. This was chassis P/1077.
April 1968 - Suzuka test sessions
Famed future F1 driver Hiroshi Fushida, driver for Toyota's works team at the time, would be the man to conduct the testing sessions for the car. I asked him about his experience with P/1077 and the story behind it, and it turns out it was not actually owned by Yamaha at the time - it was owned by Toyota (wow surprise) for data gathering in benefit for their top-secret Le Mans project. Decked out in yellow with a white stripe, the GT40 roared around Suzuka for a few hours and then retired for the next year.
1969 - Ownership transfer & delayed plans
Yamaha was to sell the GT40 for an undisclosed amount of money in September 1969 to Kojima Racing. They aimed to enter the 1969 Japan Grand Prix, but would not show up. Possibly due to the amount of work needed to be done to get the car up to speed.
1970 - Suzuka 300km
The first outing for P/1077 in a professional race was on January 18th 1970 at the Suzuka 300km race. Driven by ex-Nissan and T.R.O veteran Kenjiro Tanaka to a 4th place finish overall.
1970 - All Japan Auto Racing Tournament
The car would have its 2nd and last race on March 8th 1970, at the A-J Auto Racing Tournament. Here it was driven by former Daihatsu works driver Takao Yoshida to a 2nd place overall in the Division II race. After this event, the car disappeared from the racing scene and never raced again.
After the short but sweet racing career, the car was resprayed silver and shown in various car magazines in 1975. Then once again, it vanished after being picked up by a collector.
The car resurfaced in the 90s with its original 1968 livery, and has last been seen at the Le Mans Classic events.
>4k liveries
>custom decals
>cool description took me a while
>custom json's
Thx for watching
Images and information all gathered by my main project, the JGT Archive. Join this archive full of Japanese racing photos accurately dated and explained from the 1930s to the 1970s: https://discord.gg/eTsX42m8h3
The year is 1968.
JW Automotive had recently rebuilt their Mirage M1's to a lightweight GT40, aimed to enter the Sportscar Championship of '68. A total of 4 chassis were completed, one of which was bought by Yamaha and shipped to Japan in April 1968. This was chassis P/1077.
April 1968 - Suzuka test sessions
Famed future F1 driver Hiroshi Fushida, driver for Toyota's works team at the time, would be the man to conduct the testing sessions for the car. I asked him about his experience with P/1077 and the story behind it, and it turns out it was not actually owned by Yamaha at the time - it was owned by Toyota (wow surprise) for data gathering in benefit for their top-secret Le Mans project. Decked out in yellow with a white stripe, the GT40 roared around Suzuka for a few hours and then retired for the next year.
1969 - Ownership transfer & delayed plans
Yamaha was to sell the GT40 for an undisclosed amount of money in September 1969 to Kojima Racing. They aimed to enter the 1969 Japan Grand Prix, but would not show up. Possibly due to the amount of work needed to be done to get the car up to speed.
1970 - Suzuka 300km
The first outing for P/1077 in a professional race was on January 18th 1970 at the Suzuka 300km race. Driven by ex-Nissan and T.R.O veteran Kenjiro Tanaka to a 4th place finish overall.
1970 - All Japan Auto Racing Tournament
The car would have its 2nd and last race on March 8th 1970, at the A-J Auto Racing Tournament. Here it was driven by former Daihatsu works driver Takao Yoshida to a 2nd place overall in the Division II race. After this event, the car disappeared from the racing scene and never raced again.
After the short but sweet racing career, the car was resprayed silver and shown in various car magazines in 1975. Then once again, it vanished after being picked up by a collector.
The car resurfaced in the 90s with its original 1968 livery, and has last been seen at the Le Mans Classic events.
>4k liveries
>custom decals
>cool description took me a while
>custom json's
Thx for watching
Images and information all gathered by my main project, the JGT Archive. Join this archive full of Japanese racing photos accurately dated and explained from the 1930s to the 1970s: https://discord.gg/eTsX42m8h3