With its famously gruelling layout, the Nürburgring Nordschleife is used by quite a number of automakers for testing their new cars in additional to hosting races including the 24 Hours Nürburgring weekend. To date, the fastest Nürburgring lap time is still one of the holy grails in industry. Japanese manufacturer, Toyota was one of the companies testing on the track in Germany, but from now on  its new cars no longer have to travel abroad with the availability of the partially opened Toyota Technical Centre Shimoyama that includes a challenging test track.

Located in Aichi Prefecture taking up 159.2 hectares and just 30 minutes from the brand’s head office in Toyota City, the complete Toyota Technical Centre Shimoyama is an investment of around ¥300 billion (US$ 2.68 billion) and expected to open in 2023. The area that is now open features a 5.3-km country road test course based on the demanding Nürburgring Nordschleife experience, with a roughly 75-metre elevation difference between the track’s highest and lowest points and different forms of curves and corners. By 2023, the Eastern part of the site will be taken up by a high-speed test course and specialised courses mimicking particular road surfaces from around the world, while the Western section will include vehicle development facilities.