The teams

Toyota Team Europe

Photo: Alf van Beem via Wikimedia Commons, Public domain

Toyota Team Europe (TTE) began as Andersson Motorsport, the private team of Swedish rally driver Ove Andersson, who moved it from Uppsala to Cologne in 1979. In Group B, TTE deliberately chose toughness over speed — and won where the going was hardest.

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People

Ove Andersson first drove a Celica on the RAC Rally in 1972, and TTE grew out of that relationship. According to Wikipedia, the team only began winning regularly in the 1980s, with Björn Waldegård and Juha Kankkunen. Andersson later also led Toyota’s Formula 1 project in Cologne.

The team’s long-distance specialists were backed by experienced co-drivers: Hans Thorszelius with Waldegård until 1985, and Fred Gallagher, who won four African rallies for TTE in 1985 and 1986. Per Eklund was a regular TTE driver in 1982–84, with three second places in 1982 and third on the 1984 RAC Rally.

Results

The Celica Twincam Turbo had rear-wheel drive and a front-mounted engine, but it was strong and reliable. TTE concentrated on the Safari and the Ivory Coast:

• 1982: Waldegård wins Rally New Zealand in the Group 4 Celica.
• 1983: Waldegård wins the Ivory Coast, the Celica TCT’s first victory.
• 1984: Waldegård wins the Safari.
• 1985: Kankkunen and Fred Gallagher win the Safari and the Ivory Coast.
• 1986: Waldegård wins the Safari and the Ivory Coast again; Lars-Erik Torph is runner-up on both.

Ove Andersson’s Cologne team won six world rallies with the rear-wheel-drive Celica Twincam Turbo — all of them in Africa.

After Group B

TTE switched to the Group A Supra and then the four-wheel-drive Celica GT-Four.

In pictures 1 photos

Further resources

• Toyota Gazoo Racing: the history of Toyota in the WRC EN · article
  Toyota's own history of its rally programme, including the Celica Twin Cam Turbo years in Africa.
• Toyota Racing newsroom: 40 years since the first Celica Twincam Turbo win EN · article
  Heritage story from the Cologne team that built and ran the Celica TCT.

All Group B resources →

More from Teams

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Sources

1. Wikipedia (EN), Ove Andersson — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ove_Andersson
2. Wikipedia (EN), Toyota Gazoo Racing Europe — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Gazoo_Racing_Europe
3. Wikipedia (EN), Toyota Celica Twincam Turbo — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Celica_Twincam_Turbo
4. Wikipedia (EN), Juha Kankkunen — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juha_Kankkunen

All text is original writing for Grouve Sports Management Group, based on the sources above. Facts checked on 21 October 2026.

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