Akio Toyoda made three surprise appearances at the Tainan GR Carnival, driving a racing car and attracting 13,000 followers

Hetai held the GR Carnival in Tainan today (3rd), and Akio Toyoda, Chairman of Toyota Motor Japan, made a surprise appearance for the third time. (Photo by reporter Yang Yamin)

[Reporter Yang Yamin/Report from Taipei] Hetai (2207) held the GR Carnival in Tainan today (3rd). Japan Toyota Motor Chairman Akio Toyoda made a surprise appearance for the third time, driving the GR Yaris Rally2 car to perform a tail-drift performance of more than 2 minutes. The venue was packed with more than 13,000 car fans and screamed.

After Akio Toyoda completed his thrilling and exciting tail-flicking performance, he followed the local customs as he got off the car. He greeted all the fans in Taiwanese with "Hello everyone" and "Have you ever had enough?" and revealed that he had recently undergone a minor surgery. He still had some pain when driving to perform today, but it was not a serious problem.

The GR Carnival was held today at the South Plaza of the Greater Tainan Convention and Exhibition Center. This event was the first time that the GR brand held a street closure in Taiwan. The globally acclaimed flagship supercars GR GT3 and GR GT also made their dynamic debut in Taiwan for the first time.

Akio Toyoda himself drove a racing car to perform a drift performance. The highlight of this event was the Hero Car performance, which was kicked off by ROOKIE Racing champion driver Kazuya Oshima driving the GR GT. Hiroaki Ishiura drove the GR GT3 to make a relay appearance. The two flagship supercars successively brought bicycles to drift and performed around the field, allowing fans to experience the handling capabilities of the GR GT and GR GT3 up close.

The finale of this event, the Street Closing City Show Run, takes the development history of the GR brand as the main axis. Representative models such as Supra (fourth generation), Altezza, 86, LFA, GR Supra, GR YARiS, and GR86 sequentially drive into the street closing section, recreating the origins of the MORIZO and GR brands.

A large number of people gathered on both sides of the closed road section to watch. In the end, Oshima Kazuya drove the GR GT and Ishiura Hiroaki drove the GR GT3 to perform a zero-hundred-speed acceleration performance. The sound of the engine resounded through the streets of Tainan, marking an exciting end to the event.

Going back to 2007, in order to personally experience the control limits of the vehicle on the harsh track, Akio Toyoda anonymously challenged the Nürburgring 24-hour endurance race as MORIZO, which also made "hardening the car on the track to build a better car" an important starting point for GR.