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Originally Posted by terryobeirne
Hewland told me they made 9 special gearboxes to order from Toyota. 7 for cars being built plus 2 complete for spares. These are a magnesium cased, close ratio dog box. I have one of these. When I was speaking with John Smith at some stage, he mentioned 7 cars in total.
I beleive all the works cars were made in japan. I dont have confirmation if it was TOMS or TRD, but I suspect TOMS.
I've written to Bemani & TOMS, so I guess, I'll keep hunting
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To me that strongly suggests that those 7 cars are the works cars raced in Japan in Minolta, Fujitsu Ten and Biyo colours by TOM'S, and that any cars raced in Europe (aside from TOM'S appearances at Spa) are a totally separate issue.
I'm assuming from what you've posted that the John Smith car in Australia came from Japan. Was this a Team Toyota Australia effort? It would be useful to know some history, as my knowledge of the Aussie Group A scene is very patchy, particularly for the later years.
Didn't Garry Willmington have a Supra as well- was this an independent self-built job like his XJS, or an ex-Japan car?
I don't know much about the spec of any of the European cars, but can't help suspecting that TRD and TOM'S may not have had much- if any- input on these- Certainly, none of them were ever very successful, the RAS and MIL cars were both off-the-pace and unreliable, while Bemani went the uncompetitive but more reliable non-turbo route and ran in midfield