Westside Stories: A members’ meet-up

It might have been a grey Monday in WA, but our members were all smiles as they hit the track to put their cars to the test.

Events like this don’t come around that often, so when they do it’s great to see such a fantastic turnout. It’s a chance for members to show off their beloved GR vehicles, feel like part of the community and remember what their cars are capable of.

Between drifting in a GR86, hot laps with the Bates brothers and having a shot of the circuit, the whole day was adrenaline-pumping perfection from start to finish. Toyota Ambassador Ross Wallman swapped the airwaves for the raceway to MC for the day and Rick Bates kicked us off, splitting the group into three to get stuck into activities.

With the screech of tyres and hum of engines in the background, we got chatting with the locals who make up our GRC community in WA. Meet the owners of some of our favourite vehicles from the day.

Vinh

GR Yaris

We asked Vinh what made him pick the GR Yaris. “I read some reviews online and it just looked like a really fun car to drive. It was pretty much a no-brainer.” Having taken it out on the track a few times, I was curious to hear how drifting in the GR86 compared. “It was nice driving the 86, it’s quite a lot of fun to drive. You can kind of control the car and slide it out with a bit of acceleration,” he explained.

A mechanical engineer by trade, Vinh moved into project management and now works as a construction/operations lead. Considering this, I was keen to hear whether he had modified his vehicle. “Only a few minor mods. I put on some sway bars, camber bolts and semi-slick tyres,” he replied, seeming pretty pleased about the tyres in particular. This makes sense considering Vinh's choice of tyres enhances performance on and off the track, making them a perfect upgrade for a day like today.

“I read some reviews online and it just looked like a really fun car to drive. It was pretty much a no-brainer.”

Chris

GR Yaris

We spoke to Chris, another mechanical engineer in the power generation industry, who was most excited to have a bit of fun and see what his car could do, having only taken it to a small track once before. He did consider buying a BMW when looking around at other cars but decided to dive into something different with Toyota. “A special price came up when these came out and I couldn’t resist it, I’ve always liked little cars, it’s good fun,” he told us.

Having just built a house, Chris confessed that he has a bit of a man cave going on and that his GR Yaris is the centrepiece. He goes on to tell us about his family: he’s got a couple of teenage boys, and one of them just got his licence. His son’s car won’t be a Toyota, and he laughs as he says, “But he’s always wanting to drive my car.”

Kieran

GR Supra

Kieran, alongside his partner Jacinta, is very much embedded within the motorsport community in WA, working as a Motorsports Australia Official Steward, volunteering for a motorsport committee, organising events and racing in his spare time. They both track marshall here at the CARCO.com.au Raceway once a month. Kieran also works as a chartered electrical engineer and a team leader.

His red GR Supra looked kitted out, so we wanted to hear more about the mods he has done. “Intake, upgraded the front brakes, and a few cosmetic bits and pieces. Going in to do some work on the car in a few weeks, so will go in for a new downpipe tune, get some more horsepower out of it and see how the lap times go from there.”

When asked if there was a particular reason behind the colour choice and decals for his GR Supra, he said, “I'm always a big fan of red. To be fair, when I was looking for Supras, it was between white and red. I knew that when Jacinta got the Yaris, she was obviously getting a white Yaris but she wanted to have red accents, so I wanted to mirror that a little bit. The decals – if you look at the original GAZOO Racing liveries for when they first came out, it's a bit of a homage to that, the geometric patterns they did. And it has my lucky race number, number eleven.”

Having seen both their cars up close, it’s clear that Jacinta and Kieran are quite the power couple. Jacinta got into racing when she was 18, and now races for the motorsports club that Kieran is on the committee for. Outside of her busy motorsport schedule, Jacinta studies and works as an occupational health medical technician.

Her car is hard to miss: she’s taken the blank canvas of her white GR Yaris and turned it into a unique and highly personalised work of art. On the story behind the decal: “It's a Japanese folklore character Nure-onna. She defends women who have been in bad relationships and eats unfaithful husbands.” She then motioned to the cherry blossoms and her plates before saying, “There's an old 80s song by The Runaways called ‘Cherry Bomb’. It's all about being rebellious and not listening to anybody and that was my whole mentality when I went into motorsport. I was very young, I was one of the few chicks who were on the field. And I was like nah, I am gonna do my best and show these boys how it's done.”

“It's all about being rebellious and not listening to anybody and that was my whole mentality when I went into motorsport.”

Noting the fun details in the interior of her car, I was most intrigued by a bunny-shaped handle on the passenger side. “That’s tsurikawa. They are Japanese train handles that car guys used to steal off the train, so that when they put them in their drift cars or rally cars their passengers would have something to hold on to. It’s like a modern version of Japanese tradition. My friend May actually makes them, she has a local small business in Wangara called Drift Bunny Decals. My whole car is a homage to women of motorsport since there are not that many of us.”

We loved Jacinta’s attention to detail. And it wasn’t just her car that got the special treatment – she was wearing red racing coveralls and had her nails painted feverish red, glacier white and tarmac black especially for the day. Commenting on them, she said, “Why not be extra because we’re already extra. We’ll go the full mile.”

Another standout car from the day was a bright blue GR86. Possibly the only member at the event with a GR86, we asked Luke what made him go for such a bold look. “I wanted something out of the ordinary. Most of the cars I’ve had before have been white and maroon, nothing that’s really stood out. Blue really ticked the box and it’s nice. I always had it in my mind that I was going to get the blue one.”

It was Luke’s first time taking the GR86 onto the raceway, and a highlight of the day for him was driving his car on the track. “When it started to rain I thought I would switch to the Toyota-owned cars. But when I was driving my car on the track, it was awesome. It’s something that I’ve not been able to do before, and being able to feel what your car can do on a track as opposed to driving on the road, it’s completely different.” We spoke about how fun it was to be able to experience the car’s full capability. “Take it to the edge, safely,” he added.

Although his family car is a Mitsubishi Outlander, Luke does use the GR86 as his daily as well. And even if he’s not with his family, Luke always has company, in the form of Woody from Toy Story. When we quizzed him on his choice of driving companion, he noted that when you have a Hot Wheels coloured car, you have to lean into playfulness and have a bit of fun with it. After all, the car is by definition “rear-wheel drive, pure driving pleasure.” On his favourite place in WA to drive: “Probably Caves Road near Margaret River, driving through the trees.”

“...when you have a Hot Wheels coloured car, you have to lean into playfulness and have a bit of fun with it.”

Chris

GR Supra

Chris had a really sleek-looking Supra that you could tell had mods, so we were keen to chat with him and learn more. Having bought it in 2021, he expressed that it was “far from standard,” before listing off a number of mods he’d had done: “Exhaust, it’s got a stage two tune, a different airbox, a gearbox tune, it’s got all the toys in it.”

Chris mentioned that his other vehicle was a BMW X1, a performance car popular with other GRC members like Vinh who we'd spoken to earlier. On what he enjoyed most about the day, he said, “Just finally getting the Supra on the track because they’re too quick, you can’t use them on the roads the way you’d like to.” We asked whether he noted his speed when he was on the track, and he reckons he got it over 200km p/h, which is pretty impressive.

As we wrapped up and reflected on the event, it dawned on me that toys had become somewhat of a theme for the day, and it’s clear to see that we – as adults – don’t grow out of toys, we just find new ways to spend our money as we get older.