Toyota will be entering a special Mille Miglia support program with five legendary cars

The Mille Miglia, or 1000 Miglia/Miles is a legendary Italian open-road endurance race that often catered to classic vintage cars. This is dubbed the “most beautiful race in the world”, taking place usually on extremely scenic roads from Brescia to Rome and back. The Mille Miglia is a regularity rally, meaning the pace is usually more relaxed.

Multiple brands, with notable entries from Europe like Bugatti, BMW, Ferrari, Lancia, Jaguar, Mercedes-Benz, and Porsche, alongside rare and defunct brands from the West are the typical competitors in the Mille Miglia. A Japanese manufacturer, however, has never partaken in this, but Toyota is supporting the 2026 edition called the 1000 Miglia Gran Turismo Experience 2026.

This marks the first-ever time that a Japanese manufacturer will be taking part in a support program related to the race, and it makes sense as the program was organized by the developer of the Gran Turismo series of races, Polyphony Digital.

Five of its legendary vehicles will be participating, but Toyota’s main goal is to complete the 1,000-mile course with a first-generation Toyopet Crown RS in the lead.

Launched back in 1955, the Crown was Japan’s first fully domestically produced passenger car, completing feats like a 50,000km drive from London to Tokyo in 1956 that was finished in eight months, alongside being the first Japanese vehicle to compete and complete the Round Australia Rally in 1957.

This will be followed by the Sports 800, the brand’s first-ever two-seater sports car. Powered by a flat-two engine coming from the Publica 700, an economy car, this managed to prove that Toyota was more than just a humdrum auto manufacturer, and it won the inaugural Suzuka 500km endurance race in 1966 without refueling.

Third in formation is the 2000GT, the first world-class grand tourer made by the brand. With its iconic styling, silky smooth straight six, and three world records, 13 international records, and a 1-2 finish in the Fuji 24 Hours, there’s a good reason this car is considered legendary.

Fourth is the iconic A80 Supra. A car that needs no introduction, Toyota’s grand tourer at the time proved that it could muster up legendary performances in motorsports, have insane tuning capabilities from the 2JZ engine, and even was the reason that Master Driver Morizo exists in the first place, being his Nürburgring training vehicle.

Finally, the Lexus LFA will be rounding up the team. There’s a lot about this car that makes it an icon, such as a V10 engine that sounds like an F1 car, the full carbon fiber chassis, where they had to construct a bespoke carbon fiber loom to make it, the LFA was not only a supercar that showed the pinnacle of the F brand, but also had a fairly successful motorsports campaign with five class victories across two classes at the Nürburgring 24 Hours race.

^{Photos from Toyota}