The future of the Toyota Tamaraw one-make race car is very bright

We’ve seen the concept make its debut back at the second leg of the Toyota Gazoo Racing Philippine Cup in Villar City. While the concept car was a work-in-progress, the foundations of what is to be the Tamaraw OMR (one-make race car) made its debut at the third and final leg of the Toyota Gazoo Racing Philippine Cup at Clark International Speedway this August 9, 2025.

With Autoplus Sports tasked with helping build and develop these cars, the group has worked with the likes of Toyota Gazoo Racing Philippines and Thailand to see just how viable the humble pickup truck is as a track car, but also to further push the limits of the vehicle.

We’ve gone into detail with what makes the truck tick and what they’ve done in the past, but this improved version is worth taking a second look at with Luis Gono of Autoplus Sports to tell us what changed this time.

Currently, seven trucks have been prepared for this weekend’s race, with five of them being the circuit spec, and two of them being crazy drag-spec trucks.

It carries over the upgrades from before, like an AFE Power cold air intake, a larger intercooler, and an HKS exhaust for the 2.4-liter, four-cylinder turbodiesel (2GD-FTV), but this time around, the focus is on refinement and handling.

The five-speed manual transmission now features a racing clutch, and there is a rear limited-slip differential to improve power delivery and handling. 

The most notable difference is that the truck sits significantly lower, with a TRD Tein suspension that has been properly tuned. In fact, the ride height has been dropped by about 50.8mm, owing to a significantly more aggressive stance.

The aero kit is quite simple, with the front bumper now sporting a not-so-subtle lip, a carbon fiber hood, and the dropside truck bed has been shaven clean of anything else extraneous, leaving only the base of the bed with the side fairings from the top-of-the-line diesel A/T variant to further improve aerodynamics.

While the previous cars have either used all-terrain tires or the stock radials with various alloy and steel wheels, this one uses GT Radial Champiro SX-Rs (235/45 R17) and 17-inch Rota wheels. Of course, they have been corner weighted and have the proper racing alignment.

For stopping power, Project Mu racing brake pads and steel braided brake lines have been added, but the rotors and calipers are still stock at the moment.

Of course, the fluids have been swapped out, with it using Ravenol RCS Racing oil, Ravenol VSG Transmission oil, and Ravenol Racing 325 brake fluid.

And inside, the interior has been stripped down as much as possible, and a roll cage has been installed and welded properly. Racing bucket seats with four-point safety belts, a power kill switch, a Momo steering wheel, and a safety net, fire extinguisher, and a safety net make it safer and compliant with race car safety standards.

According to Gono, the feel of the truck has changed completely, especially when you consider the handling tweaks and weight loss of about 100kg. In fact, the latest concept has shaved 16 seconds off the Tamaraw Racing Concept’s initial recorded time of 2:48 with Gono as the driver, down to a surprising 2:32, just from the first outing of the truck.

At the moment, the car is still far from complete, as Gono says. They still have a lot to go through, especially in terms of optimizing and fine-tuning aspects like finding the ideal ride height, getting a properly remapped ECU (as they currently have been returned to stock for now) to take full advantage of the modifications, and any possible aspects to aid with power.

All of this must be taken into consideration, especially with the target budget of Php 1.5 million for the complete race car that teams and privateers can eventually purchase.

But if you want to see just how far Autoplus Sports is taking things further, the two drag cars are even crazier. The goal is simple: push the limits of the platform to see just how far they can go.

The drag cars share all the modifications from the circuit-spec race cars, with a few over-the-top modifications. The 2GD-FTV now gets a crazy custom compound twin-turbo with an upgraded intercooler and piping, plus a dual 3-inch open side-exit exhaust.

Power output now is about a crazy 370 wheel horsepower (even close to 400, Gono reckons) and 700 Nm. It also has a customized front lip and a crazy large rear wing that’s been modified from a Varis spoiler for a Nissan GT-R.

This car could theoretically go up against the crazy drag diesels that rocket off the line in a cloud of black smoke with further modifications, but the biggest limitation right now to this is grip and the transmission. 

A multi-link suspension or a trailing-arm suspension might replace the leaf-sprung rear end to help keep the power down, and the five-speed manual’s gearing is already maxed out, meaning a drop-in sequential transmission is the ideal candidate for replacement. The tires are still the same GT Radials as the circuit cars, but specialized drag slicks will be used to extract the most out of this crazy truck.

All of this ongoing development means that next year’s Toyota Gazoo Racing Philippine Cup will be worth keeping an eye on, especially once the team’s goal of making at least 30 Tamaraw OMRs are ready to fight in next year’s Tamaraw Class.

Photos by Sam Surla