July 22, 2015 – Toyota announced earlier this month that they had hired four-time world rally champion Tommi Makinen as team principal for their new WRC outfit.
Makinen will lead the team’s return to the World Rally Championship in 2017, in which Toyota hopes to fight for the title in a Yaris World Rally Car. However, Makinen was recently spotted in Finland testing a car that is a little bit different – a Toyota GT86 4×4.
Toyota has already confirmed that they will be using the Yaris for their WRC program, so don’t expect a GT86 on the special stages in 2017. The GT86 4×4 is allegedly built for Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda.