It was completed but never competed. Let’s take a look at Toyota’s forgotten rally monster.

Group S was a stillborn class of rallying which was canned alongside Group B in 1986. Originally slanted to replace the outgoing Group B with an exciting power-limiting formula not dissimilar to current WRC, Group S was instead shelved along with Group B, in favor of the considerably less exciting Group A.

The rules for Group S were to stipulate that competing cars be limited to 300hp, and that only ten models needed to be built for homogolation. Group B had previously demanded 200 be built, meaning that Group S could have been responsible for some seriously creative, wild builds had it been allowed to run its course.

As a result, only a handful of prototypes were built – including 11 Toyota 222Ds, like the one you see here today. The 222D was based on the AW11 MR2, however as you can see – the level of modification was extreme. The engine was lifted from the 1980s Toyota Le Mans cars, a 2,140cc, 16-valve, dry-sump inline four-cylinder DOHC turbocharged piece known as the 503E.

Take a look at this video of one making noise around Goodwood:

Here they appear to be just hooning it around the carpark, as you do:

Images thanks to Toyota Motorsport.