After Toyota Racing Development (TRD) was officially established in 1976 as the company’s in-house tuner, its engineers spent a significant proportion of their time preparing production cars for motorsport. But 18 years later, evidence was provided that TRD had inversed this procedure with the production of the TRD 3000GT, a road model directly inspired by a competition car.
 
A few months prior to the fourth-generation Supra’s arrival as a works entry in the inaugural Japanese Grand Touring Championship (JGTC) in 1994, TRD displayed a sensational road-legal version of the race car at the annual Tokyo Auto Salon aftermarket tuning show. Dubbed the TRD 3000GT, it wore the same widened and wind tunnel-honed bodywork as the new GT500 class super-touring Supra.
 
While every component of the TRD conversion became available to order individually as a dealer-fit accessory, the ultimate and most exclusive incarnation was a factory-built model. Only 35 examples of these were ever produced, each of which came with its own specially numbered VIN plate that officially re-classified the car as a TRD 3000GT rather than a Toyota Supra.
For TRD, this debut road project was more about improving performance by optimising the vehicle’s dynamic ability, rather than increasing power. So although the conversion did include enhanced engine-breathing products and uprated suspension, the primary focus was on exchanging heavy original bodywork for aerodynamically superior components made from fibre-reinforced plastic.