Toyota-Eagle GTP MkIII

I truly believe a good car does not have to do only with good performances, but also its opportunities to be right on the money, even if you go sometimes a little away from the good changes.

Of course, the big secret to any good car is the people who build it, and the people who look for the “car’s heart” while working on it every day. The people who shoot together for a common purpose—not just for a boss or somebody else—are those who make a car special. The MkIII had all those elements together, and it produced a perfect interaction.

With John Ward as the designer, Hiro Fujimori as the aerodynamic engineer and Jim Hamilton as the race engineer, it was a fantastic combination, simple as that. In our team, nobody worked for anybody in particular, instead everybody worked for everybody, and for themselves. Our team’s only concern was to improve the car to make it quicker, to make it safe, to make it reliable, and to win races.

I will never forget one night in 1992. We were fighting for the championship, and that night in a restaurant, I didn’t see one of our guys with us. When I asked for him, a couple of the team members told me: “He went back to the track.” I asked why, and they said, “Because he wanted to double check something he was not 100 percent sure was done fine.” That day I understood the championship was ours.

Of all the other things I may say about the MkIII in the next lines, the essence of the car, the secret itself, I have no doubt, is in the lines above.

The other thing to consider in evaluating a good car is how stable the car’s performance is in different scenarios. That was another great achievement of the MkIII. Road course, street course, slippery or bumpy tracks, the car was always there, like a good racehorse. We just had to interpret its requirements to make it better. Jim had perfect communication with the car, and with our guys. They were the best to execute the changes, and to read things when they understood it had to be changed to be better.

The MkIII was also very sensitive to its tires. We have to understand that the car’s performance starts and finishes with the tires, and you need a very good car balance to feel the differences between the different compounds, constructions, shapes, etc. Chassis, engine and track, all three have to match together through the tires, and only a good car can put all these elements together.

I remember one of the games we played with PJ and the team was to beat the ideal lap of the simulation computer, and more than once we were able to achieve it. This can be done only with a delicious car.

Also with PJ, we used to work on the setup with both cars going around the track at a certain lap time, and at that moment, it looked like the fastest we were able to go. When it was time for qualifying, however, almost always we were able to take out of the bag another two seconds. Everybody thought we had a special qualifying engine, but we just had our minds 100 percent focused, with only the worry of putting together the best lap possible. You can only do that when you are able to transfer what you have in mind straight to the wheels, and for that, all you need is the best car, the best team, and a great inspiration. For us, that inspiration had a name, and that name was Dan Gurney. My thanks to all you guys!