At the Toyo Tires visitors carpark which is allllll the way out the back.
This was framed up on the wall in the boardroom. An aerial shot of the Toyo building in Minto. SO HUGE!!!!!
I’ve been a Toyo fan ever since my first set of R888 semi-slicks which I purchased many years ago. I’ve had plenty of sets actually, on various cars (Jazz, MX-5, EG Civic, DC2R, Golf GTI, all of which were daily drivers too). Sure, semi’s aren’t perfect for daily driving duties, they’re noisy and not great in the wet, but this is where the R888 is different to the rest. I find that they warm up DAMN fast on the street. A couple of blocks from home and they’re good to go. I also find them pretty good in the wet (but wet grip gets quite drastically worse as tyres wear out). I also generally just love how fat they look. Fat rubber is where it’s at IMHO. Always has been, always will be. It’s just so tough looking (I hate how weak stretched tyres look).
Anyways, to cut a long story short. I’ve been in discussions with Toyo since putting on a fresh set of R888’s on my GT-R at the end of March. I had my car under their tent at EOMM and got to meet the team. We had a bit of a chat on the night at EOMM. It seems like Toyo has been MIA since they stopped sponsoring the drifting. I’m just really happy that the brand is participating in community related events again.
Today I drove out to their HUGE HQ in Minto for a meeting. I was humbled by some of the discussion we had inside. These guys are pretty hungry to make a comeback, they seem to like what I do, and since I’m already a fan of the brand, sponsorship feels like a really good fit.
So yes! I’m officially sponsored by Toyo. Hopefully I’ll be testing out the new R888R on the GT-R soon and getting more involved with Toyo moving forward. Should be an awesome collaboration. More news and details to come!
Ooh!