Toyota's Lost Legacy Goes On The Auction Block For Coronavirus Charity

Starting June 15th and ending June 22nd, auction house RM Sotheby’s is partnering with the FIA, racing teams, and drivers to host a coronavirus charity auction to benefit the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. In addition to a day on the Ferrari simulator and some race-worn gear donated by drivers, Toyota stepped up to donate a complete TF109 Formula One car [engine and gearbox included!] for the auction.

The TF109 chassis raced in the 2009 season, Toyota’s last in the sport. Despite the global economic recession of 2008, Toyota remained financially committed to F1 in 2009 to the tune of an alleged half-billion dollar budget.
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CANADIANCOMMENTS - 6/2/2020 2:22:48 PM

+1 Boost

While an easy way for Toyota to get rid of it, This test car that was never raced and not in Toyota Livery won't fetch nearly as much as a team car that has been raced in Toyota colours. No idea what it would go for. It certainly is not investment grade as it won't appreciate.

F1_Driver - 6/2/2020 9:38:48 PM

+1 Boost

Nobody wants to invest in a loser. How many years did Toyota spend racing in F1? Six, seven or eight years? Not one single race won in that time. On top of it, they were caught cheating using former Ferrari race engineers with Ferrari data on Toyota laptops. Motor sports or sports cars for that matter do not belong in the same sentence as Toyota. Toyota, do what you do best: build boring appliances that are reliable. Leave racing or building sporty cars to companies that have an actual racing heritage like Honda.