The car Toyota would have raced in F1 this year has been driven by Kazuki Nakajima in Cologne.

The TF110 has been revealed and inspected by Racecar Engineering. and looks outwardly similar to the BMW Sauber C29 with a high, long nose.

Toyota’s 11th hour exit from Formula 1 at the end of 2009 means this car will never compete in F1.

Two examples of the TF110 were built despite the team’s decision at the end of last year not to contest the 2010 championship.

According to the magazine the design features “one of the most extreme diffusers seen yet” and a ride height adjustment system.

Who knows how competitive the TF110 would have been. It’s doubtful that, even if another team acquired the intellectual property rights to use the car in 2011, it could be suitably modified to be competitive following further changes to F1’s technical regulations.

The manner in which Toyota exited the sport within days of the 2009 season ending is a reminder of how close the former Honda team came to disappearing 12 months earlier.

As Ross Brawn explained afterwards, the company’s management hadn’t given any thought to passing the team on to another owner and had to be persuaded to accept Brawn’s management buy-out. It seems much the same happened at Toyota.

While BMW also, though with some difficulty, passed ownership of their team back to Peter Sauber, Toyota cut and run and there was no going back. Attempts by Zoran Stefanovich to use the cars to obtain an entry failed.

Recently former Toyota boss Tadashi Yamashina explained how the onset of the credit crunch hastened the team’s departure from Formula 1.

It’s a pity to see an F1 car, built at considerable expense, sat idle when it could be competing. Hopefully we’ll only have to wait until next year to see F1 get back to 26-car grids.

You can buy the new issue of Racecar Engineering from Zinio here.

Read more: Toyota quits F1 after eight winless years