Pasta's Livery Warehouse

Funabashi CCC 1965 - Toyota Corona RT40 #10

Added 2024-12-09 19:13:10 +0000 UTC

For the new ATCC/Lucas Macedo Toyota Corona RT40.

Toyota's touring car racing heritage started with their flagship saloon, the now unfortunately named Corona. While the Publica mopped up race win after race win in the first few years of racing in post-war Japan, the Corona, with its bigger 1.6L engine for racing forcing it in the T-II class... Against the Prince Skyline 2000GT.

As some might expect, the Prince factory teams completely dominated touring car racing at this time, with Toyota often only following behind. Isuzu at this time was also suffering from a sheer lack of performance in the T-II class compared to the Skylines.

At the 1965 CCC, a car club competition event aimed at replacing the cancelled 1965 Japan Grand Prix, four RT40's were entered by TMSC factory team drivers in the T-II race. Number 10 was driven by Akira Kuwahara, who performed quite well in the early stages, placing himself up in 4th, but the treacherous wet weather ruined his race after a slide into the sandbag wall ended with his RT40 immobilized on the Funabashi infield.