FOR THE FIRST time in quite a while, the weather was not just cooperative but almost embarrassingly perfect on race day for the final round of the Toyota Gazoo Racing (TGR) Philippine Cup 2025.
It was neither hot nor rainy — two extremes that had seemed to define the previous legs stretching back to the previous season. Given this blessed break, racers, participants, spectators, and yes, even members of the media and content creators had a field day to take in the spectacle of Race Weekend 3 (RW3).
The 11th season of what was once known as the Vios Cup showed that the race has truly gone a long way and today means a lot of things to a lot of people. The one-make, grassroots racing series has always stood as a sort of low-hanging fruit for those wanting to scratch an itch to race on the track through Toyota’s best-selling, ubiquitous, and time-tested sedan — while serving up the action to racing fans of all ages for absolutely free. The most recent iteration has shown it to be much more than a stage for the Vios.
Indeed, this season had a lot of highlights, milestones, and enhancements. Speaking at a presser in between race heats, Toyota Motor Philippines (TMP) Assistant Vice-President for Marketing Services Department Andy Ty said that among the changes made this year to the series is the addition of the Legacy Class. “That has added more excitement,” he maintained, “especially for the owners of the older Vios Cup cars that have been out of commission for a couple of years.” Another big change is the return of the street race. The on-road edition of the race, last seen seven years ago, was brought back in a big way with Race Weekend 2 (RW2) slated at the Villar City in Cavite last May. A sizeable crowd of 12,000 took in the action, which brought not only racing but entertainment, and other activities much closer to communities, compared to the usual haunt at the Clark International Speedway in Pampanga.
Having said that, RW3, now back at Clark, saw a record-breaking number of cars — around 70 — on the grid at various times to participate in the races. Add to this the exciting showcase vehicles: GR Yaris, GR Supra, and GR 86, some of which were modified by TMP partner, speed shop Autoplus.
Aside from being the culminating series of races for the various categories, RW3 featured the first-ever sprint race participated in by, yes, specially constructed new-generation Toyota Tamaraw units. “A lot of effort has been put into developing the vehicles and, of course, modifying them, shared Mr. Ty.
Speaking to this writer, Luis Gono of Autoplus revealed the range of modifications made on the Tamaraws conscripted into the sprint race. “It’s the same intake, same intercooler, same exhaust (versus the Tamaraw Concept first seen in Villar City).” However, the ECU, crucially, has not been remapped.
“The underchassis is where a lot of the improvements happened, Mr. Gono continued. “We have installed suspension from TCD (Toyota Customizing and Development Co., Ltd), which was formerly TRD (Toyota Racing Development), TCD LSD (limited slip differential), and lowering blocks from TCD as well,” he elaborated. “Inside are Sparco bucket seats, a Schroth safety harness, and TCD roll cage. We swapped in the Hilux instrument cluster, too, so that there’s an RPM indicator; and brake pads are by TCD as well, made by Project Mu.”
The overall look of the race-ready Tamaraw was completed with Rota-brand wheels, GT Radial SXR tires, a front lip by TCD, and the inclusion of mandatory safety equipment such as a fire extinguisher and killswitches on the outside and inside.
The output is almost stock, with Mr. Ty estimating the maximum power gain at around 5hp. This was deliberate, according to Mr. Gono. “We wanted to push the handling first and the corner speeds. We still think there’s time left before we start experimenting with a remap. But we have been pleasantly surprised with the performance.”
Interestingly, ahead of the Tamaraw sprint race, a souped-up Tamaraw handily beat an unmodified GR 86 in a drag race. That version of the workhorse, revealed Mr. Gono, was “a super pickup concept” built by Autoplus. The output of the manual-transmission Tamaraw was a robust 335whp via a compound turbo setup. That specimen’s ECU was tuned by Constant Racing, producing a hefty 700Nm.
This is obviously serious stuff for an unlikely track tamer. Where is this all headed?
Mr. Ty announced, “We are planning to make the Tamaraw one-make race an entirely separate class for next year. The Vios will (have the) standard classes that you see from this season. But we do plan to add for the Tamaraw. How these will mesh together is something that we are discussing, and we hope to have at least 30 cars on the grid, if possible.”
As with the Vios Cup cars, TMP is planning to offer race-ready units of the Tamaraw. “If anyone is interested (to purchase) the vehicle, we are currently working on a way to provide a complete package. It should be ready by the time the next season starts,” he concluded.
(To be continued next week)
