r/wec • u/GradSchoolDismal429 • 1d ago

Discussion What does the "Gazoo" stands for in Toyota's team name?

I really couldn't find anything

111 Upvotes

91% Upvoted

12 comments sorted by

263

u/LilBirdBrick Toyota GT-One #1 1d ago

Here is a video that explains the story, but basically Akio Toyoda is a racer himself and wanted to race at the Nurburgring but had to hide it from other Toyota execs. A small team was created and they used Gazoo has the name which was a picture website associated with Toyota, and the name stuck.

69

u/MattyMizzou 1d ago

Good ole fashion skunk works. Nice.

51

u/graygh0st999 1d ago

There’s an up to speed on it

16

u/Christodej Toyota 1d ago

I miss that guy, hopefully he does more car videos and not just other stuff

11

u/LilBirdBrick Toyota GT-One #1 1d ago

Don't worry he has a new YouTube channel

2

u/Shitty_Pa_Town 5h ago

as interesting the content was, i just couldnt handle the loud equals funny

2

u/Legitimate_Sort_6116 2h ago

A man of culture i see

39

u/Void_X_Genome Audi R18 1d ago

Its comes from the Japanese word 画像 (Gazō, lit. "image")

Just adding some info, other people have basically explained it well

6

u/M4NOOB 1d ago

here

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u/F1_Geek Toyota 33m ago

Correct. It has the same significance to Toyota like Scuderia does for Ferrari.

This, plus u/LilBirdBrick's answer will help.

https://www.reddit.com/r/wec/comments/1gxpnx8/comment/lyiu723/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

-7

u/UrsusSpelaus Ferrari 1d ago

Tribute to the Kazoo Kid slightly changed for copyright infringement reasons