日本語
The 24-hour endurance race was held at Nürburgring in Germany from May 21st to 24th, 2009. Both amateur and professional auto manufacturers/teams in the world participated in this great grassroots race. In the race, various types and classes of vehicles including Porsche,Audi, BMW, and Mini run simultaneously. In addition, it is also famous that this race is utilized for vehicle development and testing, so this event has been attracting more attention than ever from the media. This event seems to have gathered as many as 240,000 spectators.
Our GAZOO Racing team entered with the machines of two LEXUS LF-As and one LEXUS IS F. In front of the GAZOO Racing’s tent allowed to display vehicles, a great number of customers gathered during the race period. One of the reasons is the display of the iQ GAZOO version. The compact body colored in white and black by brushing like the LF-A which participated in the 24-hour race was attracting auto fans’ eyes.
Compact cars are originally popular in Europe.
German auto fans seemed to have been watching this iQ with great interest.
Since it was a tuning car, there were a lot of ardent people who looked into the wheel and the area under the floor.
It was impressive that everyone seemed to want to sit in this iQ.
Among the visitors who eagerly looked over the car, we had a couple of German saying that they came from somewhere in Germany get in the car.
The woman said, “This iQ is so small but seems to have good riding comfort.”
The boyfriend unexpectedly gave us a Japan-freak-like comment saying,
“I will absolutely buy the Celica tuned by GAZOO Racing!”
The name of “GAZOO Racing” itself seemed quite attractive in Europe.
In addition, since not only the race site but also the public roads around the Nürburgring in Germany are also often used as courses for the evaluation toward commercial release,
we tried driving the iQ GAZOO version on the public roads. We could see this iQ running like a bird on the gently winding roads in the hilly area of Germany.
Automotive seasoning including the underbody seemed to be reaching the final phase.
Even European auto fans seem to begin to request Toyota to make this iQ, which gathered attention even at the Mecca of “Automotive Seasoning,”
Nürburgring commercially available together with the name of
GAZOO Racing...
