Toyota GR GT3 heads for the Nürburgring 24 Hours in 2027, with KCMG and Liberati in the frame

Toyota’s new GR GT3 will race for the first time at Motegi on 7 and 8 November, and its first big target in Europe is the Nürburgring 24 Hours of 27 to 30 May 2027. Hong Kong team KCMG, which raced a Mercedes-AMG on the Nordschleife this year, is set to run the car there.

Toyota has kept testing at the Nürburgring in the meantime. KCMG driver Edoardo Liberati told RNT during the NLS finale weekend in October that the car was running at the circuit in those days, though not on race day itself.

A Super GT debut that scores no points

The race debut comes in the Super GT season finale, the Motegi GT 250km double-header. Rookie Racing, the team linked to Toyota chairman Akio Toyoda, swaps its Mercedes-AMG for the GR GT3 in the GT300 class. Hiroaki Ishiura and 18-year-old Tokuya Suzuki share the car, according to Endurance-Info. The GR GT3 will not score points at Motegi, and its Balance of Performance is not listed with the rest of the field.

For 2027 the car stays with a small group of factory-supported teams, Endurance-Info reports: Akkodis ASP in the WEC LMGT3 class, Vasser Sullivan in IMSA, Rookie Racing in Super GT and KCMG on the Nordschleife. US outlet RACER, the only source so far for the 24-hour plan, writes that Rookie Racing will bring the GR GT3 to the Nürburgring 24 Hours alongside KCMG. Toyota itself has not yet published an entry.

Seven fifty-seven on the steering wheel

The car’s first public Nordschleife laps came on Friday 31 July, in the official test and set-up session before the six-hour NLS race. KCMG ran it, with Jesse Krohn, winner of the 2025 Nürburgring 24 Hours, and Liberati at the wheel. A photo of the steering wheel display showed a 7:57 lap. Neither Toyota nor KCMG confirmed that time.

Krohn was careful afterwards. “It has its strengths and weaknesses, but it’s hard to judge as we haven’t really compared it with another car yet,” he told GT Report.

A conversation at the team hotel

Liberati is the link between KCMG’s past and its Toyota future. The Italian is a team regular: KCMG says he drove four of its five Nürburgring 24 Hours entries before this year. “This will be my ninth session with KCMG and it’s been an incredible journey so far!” he said when the team announced its 2026 programme in March.

This year he raced KCMG’s Mercedes-AMG in the NLS. When RNT ran into him at the team hotel during the NLS finale weekend, Liberati said in a short conversation that his next season lies with the Toyota programme. He did not want that made public at the time, and we kept it to ourselves. Now that the 2027 plans for the GR GT3 are out in the open, we can report it. KCMG did not enter the NLS finale itself, the official result shows.

In May the team’s #47 Mercedes-AMG started the 24 Hours with David Pittard, Krohn, Nirei Fukuzumi and Naoya Gamou.

Our read

The Nordschleife is clearly where Toyota wants to prove this car: a public test in July, more running in October, both with KCMG, a team that has now started the 24 Hours six times. A factory-backed newcomer with that kind of preparation, and a driver like Liberati who knows the team inside out, deserves to be taken seriously in 2027. The open question is the Balance of Performance: a brand-new car with no race data is the hardest one to rate, and on the Nordschleife the BoP already decides more arguments than the stopwatch does.

Motegi on 7 and 8 November, the 24 Hours on 27 to 30 May

After the Motegi double-header, the next step is the 2027 Nordschleife season. The NLS opens on 20 March. With the car limited to factory-supported teams next year, expect only one or two GR GT3s on the Nordschleife. All dates are on our 24h Nürburgring 2027 and NLS calendar 2027 pages, the finale that just ended is on our NLS10 results page, and all our Nordschleife coverage is on the NLS hub.

Sources: KCMG press releases (12 March and 29 April 2026), Endurance-Info, RACER, GT Report, official NLS10 result, RNT’s own conversation with Edoardo Liberati at the Nürburgring in October 2026.

Will the Toyota GR GT3 be a contender for overall victory at its first Nürburgring 24 Hours, or does it need a year to learn? Tell us in the comments.