9 replies to this topic

[GTO]

The involvement of Toyota in the IMSA championship was crowned with success, with titles in both the GTO and the GTP categories.

The road of the success began in 1983 when AAR took over from Kent Racing in the IMSA GTU championship. That's the period 1981 - 1985 which interest me.

As far as the AAR/Toyota connection is concerned, it seems that the joint venture started from 1983 when the AAR entity entered the ex-Kent cars. The same year (unless it was in 1984) AAR built its own tubular chassis based machine. Meanwhile the car was rebodied.

In 1985, a GTO version was developped from the GTU car. The following year, a new Celica made its debut. It win the GTO title in 1987.

I'm looking for magazines/books articles, archives and/or technical information from the Celicas which were developped under the GTU rules, firstly by George and Mike Follmer (1981), then by the Kent Racing team (1982) and finally the Dan Gurney's team .

[Herbert]

Do you know this:

http://www.dangurney.com/celicas.html

[T54]

GTO,
My company built the racing wheels for these cars and I have some pictures of the cars, including one at the SEMA show with one of these cars on our booth. I will try to scan them and post them as soon as I can get to it.
Regards,

T54

[TooTall]

By chance I had a large box of slides next to the desk with some shots of the '84 and '87 Riverside IMSA races.

Riverside 1984, Jim Adams, DNF

Dennis Aase - Wally Dallenbach Jr, DNF

Not sure on this one, may not be 1984.

Riverside 1987, Chris Cord, 1st GTO

Willy T. Ribbs, DNF



Cheers,
Kurt

[GTO]

Herbert, I already visited the AAr official website and kept all information available.
I contacted Dan Gurney long time ago. He answered me, but his response wasn't sufficient.
I need more technical information and know how the cars evolved during each season.
This is the reason why I post this thread.

T54, I really appreciate your proposition. Thank you very much. I look forward to hearing from you...

TooTall, your pics are fantastic. May I use them freely on my own website (http://www.sportscaruniverse.com) on the condition I credit their copyrights to your name (e-mail) unless you'd rather we did otherwise.

[gdonahoe]

Hello GTO,

I worked at AAR from the start of the 1984 season through the end of 1997. During the GTU/GTO era I was crew chief on car #98. Certainly this was a very exciting and memorable time in my life. Please contact me with whatever questions you might have. I will try to help.

Regards,

Gary Donahoe

[Frank S]

Originally posted by gdonahoe
Hello GTO,

I worked at AAR from the start of the 1984 season through the end of 1997. During the GTU/GTO era I was crew chief on car #98. Certainly this was a very exciting and memorable time in my life. Please contact me with whatever questions you might have. I will try to help.

Regards,

Gary Donahoe

TNF into the breach again! Remarkable.

I have this marked "1983"; is that good?



Driven by Gene Hackman, Margie Smith-Haas, and maybe Dallenbach Jr., approaching Riverside Turn Six first apex.

--
Frank S

[gdonahoe]

Frank S,

Yes, 1983 would be correct, the year before I joined AAR. It was driven by Hackman and Smith-Haas. Although Wally was on the entry, I don’t think he drove it in the race. I believe Riverside was the last race for this Kent built car. The rolling chassis was returned to the Toyota Motorsports storage facility exactly as pictured in the care of Brownie. It has remained there ever since. I was told recently that Toyota has interest in putting it back to running condition

Gary

[T54]

Hi Gary,
Nice to see you here. How's the Galaxie?
PM me please!

T54

[mwphoto]

1981 George and Mike Follmer Road America...


1982 Rick Knoop Mid-Ohio

1982 Lee Mueller Mid-Ohio


1983 From Mid-Ohio #98 Wally Dallenbach/Roy Hauje #99 Dennis Aase/Roberto Morento




1984 From Daytona


1985 Chris Cord/Dennis Aase Road America

1985 Chris Cord Columbus