All’s good to go in the action-packed 2024 Toyota GR Cup

The racing overalls have been broken in, the helmets fit snugly and the cars are good to go. All that remains is for the action to start in the 2024 Toyota GR Cup.

The seven-round racing series, now in its third season, will again be contested by six members of the motoring media.

The Citizen Motoring lines up against Sean Nurse (AutoTrader), Bernie Hellberg (Driven), Kumbi Mtshakazi (Kumbi-M on Cars), Alex Shahini (CarMag) and Hannes Visser (La’t Wiel) in what is expected to be an interesting year.

Apart from Nurse, who took part in 2022, the other five are making their racing debuts.

The Toyota GR Corolla is the weapon of choice this year, following the GR Yaris (2022) and GR 86 (2023).

The six of us will battle it out in identical machines, which are powered by a three-cylinder 1.6-litre turbo-petrol engines.

This red-hot vehicle sends 221kW of power and 360Nm of torque to all four wheels via the six-speed intelligent manual transmission. The GR-Four allwheel-drive system also features a limited slip differential.

The power outputs are stock standard from what you can buy off any Toyota showroom floor, with the six cars featuring a few racing modifications, some standard safety requirements and others to help them go faster around the track.

Our GR Corollas are fitted with a roll cage, exhaust modification, Dunlop Direzza semi-slick tyres, a Powerbrake big brake upgrade with Ferodo Track spec pads, OMP Racing seat and harness as well as lowering springs.

After getting some quality seat time over the course of two testing days at Zwartkops Raceway, the six drivers head to Killarney this week for the first round of the National Extreme Series. It is the first of two rounds at Killarney, along with two at Zwartkops, one at Kyalami, one in Gqeberha and one in East London.

While it was very pleasant getting to know the car around Zwartkops, Killarney will be a different kettle of fish, as a few of us have been around the 3.267km layout.

The only thing we can expect is the unexpected.