The
Toyota Eagle came on scene in 1991, right at the peak of the Nissan
years, and
immediately looked the picture. Visually functional, but
really how
effective? After all, the engine still was the diminutive
turbo-charged
2.1 liter, four cylinder. Twenty-seven races later, in 1993,
the
record spoke for itself: 21 wins since its inception.But
the story of the MkIII's 1992 and 1993 sucesses goes back further than
that. By 1990 it had become apparent to Gurney and the design
team at All American
Racers that the Toyota HF89 had little room for additional improvement. "When
we were in the window, the car was good in every way," says Fangio, "but out of
the window, the car was not right at all."
Thus plans
were put in motion to take into account what was deficient in the HF89
and
apply the lessons learned to a new chassis.
As John Ward states, "The GTP cars were essentially evolving from a
Porsche Le Mans car, a good design but one that had been around for a
few years. Nissan had upped that a bit, but we thought
there was a lot more that could be done."
John Ward and Aerodynamicist Hiro Fujimori would design the new Mk III, internally called the WFO 91 (Ward, Fujimori, others 1991). Ward was not unfamiliar to All American Racing, he had worked for them on and off over the years and the MkIII was his third "Tour of Duty."
The MkIII was internally known as the WFO 91, which stood for Ward, Fujimori, and Others (or on the cheek as Wide F'in Open). Here are some additional interviews with indeed the W, F, and O of the project....
>Chief
Designer, John Ward
>Head of Aero, Hiro Fujimori
>Model Shop Manager, John Hutnick
>M&S Hobbies' 1/24 scale Toyota Eagle MkIII kit review
