TOYOTA Corolla WRC For sale
WRC Monte Carlo and NZ winner in 1998
Amazing restorationa and condiiton
The most prestigious of the Corollas
Description
We are delighted to offer the TTE Corolla WRC chassis 609 which was registered on December 19th 1997 « K-AM 307 ». This car is no less than the most titled of the Corollas, it actually scored in the hands of Carlos Sainz two of the Corolla’s four WRC victories. He drove this very car to a masterful victory at the Monte Carlo and Rally New Zealand plus a 7th place finish in Spain. It also finally competed in Rally Australia with Loix, scoring a 6th place. Back then it was very rare that the same chassis won two rallies due to the high level of competition and the fewer number of races compared to nowadays. From a period article it was reported that the last time this happened was in 1993 with Kankkunen.
The car went to Toyota Team Sweden in 2000 and competed in four rounds of the WRC with a remarkable 8th place finish at the Acropolis. It later went to Toyota Team Denmark and was driven by Jens Mulvad. Twice in 2000 & 2001 it was victorious in the Danish Championship still running under Castrol colors. In 2002 it was sold to well known TTE specialist Wevers Sport in the Netherlands and appeared in WRC for the last time at the 2002 Deutschland rally. Wevers rented the car to several customers until selling it to the other well know TTE specialists DMS - Belgium before it was sold in 2008 to Christian Vincent who kept the car until 2016.
The following owner, a collector, ordered a bare shell restoration to exacting TTE specifications by Wevers for the chassis and DMS for the mechanical components and assembly. An extensive photographic record is available and shows the stages of the work. The bodyshell was put on a jig and repaired where necessary. The roof was replaced along with the floors as part of a detailed restoration to the most exacting standards. The mechanical components were completely renewed and the car was delivered in immaculate condition, ready to achieve its full potential.
The car is presented today in stunning condition, exactly as it was raced by Sainz in the 1998 WRC with less than 1000km covered only in demonstration runs since its total restoration.
It comes with the FIA « Gold » Passport and its original « Fahrzeugbrief » with K-AM 307 registration.
Chassis 609 is an amazing opportunity to acquire a « Monte Carlo Winner » with an outstanding rallying pedigree in immaculate and race ready condition.
Model history
In 1997 after two years absence since having been banned due to the « Celica affair », Toyota via TTE ( Toyota Team Europe ) returned to the WRC with the all new Corolla WRC. Based upon the permissive FIA regulations for Rally cars, this was technically a big step forward. The WRC regulations allowed new mechanical developments and extensively modified bodywork. No longer was it necessary for the WRC cars to be based on an homologated road car, as were the previous group A ones. Indeed no four wheel drive 2 liter turbo engined Corolla ever existed. The car features a remarkable engine about which Auriol commented that it was the very best he had ever driven. The car featured a remarkable weight distribution of 54% at the front instead of 61% for the Celica. It was a very compact car which was 24 ( ! ) cm shorter than the Subaru but its most technical innovation were its 3 hydraulically monitored differentials, a world first. Though some of the mechanical elements were still based on the ST205 Celica, this was mostly a new WRC contender that was entered at the end of the 1997 season in the 1000 Lakes rally. During its development Toyota announced it was 0,7sec/km faster than the Celica on tarmac.
Of the first generation WRC cars ( Subaru - Ford - Toyota ), the Corolla was the most technically advanced, taking full advantage of what the regulations allowed, whilst the others were more or less upgraded Groupe A cars, whereas the Mitsubishi Lancer was still entirely a Group A.
With a Sainz and Auriol line up at the wheel of the all new Corolla, Toyota had high hopes in the WRC battle for both titles. The 1998 season began in a really promising manner and saw the Toyotas dominate, Sainz winning the Monte Carlo & New Zealand Rally and Auriol the Spanish rounds. All went well for Sainz until he was to suffer probably his biggest frustration by losing the Driver’s Championship at the last round, with an engine failure only 300m from the RAC finish line. Though he was more consistent than Makinen with only two DNFs instead of six, back then the point distribution favored victories and he had two whereas Makinen had five.
The 1999 season saw a greater domination from Makinen for the Driver’s title but Toyota clinched the Manufacturers’ Championship beating Subaru. Toyota had announced that they would stop their WRC program by the end of 1999 to prepare their Formula 1 début in 2002. TTE continued to develop the Corolla however for privateers in 2000. This made the Corolla the best WRC car available for privateers in the early 2000s. It won a considerable number of national championships and WRC podium places. A total of 57 cars were built, of which 33 served as factory TTE cars. They represent a fantastic era of the WRC with the epic battles between Sainz, Makinen, McRae, Kankkunen, Burns… when at least 5 drivers were in contention for the victory of each rally, driving beautiful and spectacular cars.