Toyota Australia And Walkinshaw Group have stated that they are open to expanding their current partnership to potentially produce more showroom models – such as potentially a Ford Ranger Raptor rival – should the opportunity arise.
The Toyota GR Supra will make its racing debut at the opening round of the 2026 Repco Supercars Championship at Sydney Motorsport Park this weekend, with the Walkinshaw team switching to Toyota after last year’s title win in the Ford Mustang.
But the partnership could go beyond the race track, potentially giving Toyota access to local engineering resources to produce special edition sports cars, as well as the chance to build a flagship HiLux as a real rival to the Ford Ranger Raptor and Nissan Navara Pro-4X Warrior.
One of Australia’s largest automotive employers, the thriving Walkinshaw Group – which grew out of Holden Special Vehicles (HSV) – has already worked on a variety of projects for multiple manufacturers beyond its highly visible Supercars division.
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This includes developing road models for Volkswagen Australia and running successful racing programs, including the Ford Ranger Raptor’s one-two-three victory in the production class of the demanding Finke Desert Race.
At its newly expanded facilities in Clayton, Melbourne, Walkinshaw also remanufactures the Chevrolet Silverado, Ram 1500/2500/3500 and Toyota Tundra full-size pickups in right-hand drive for each automaker’s Australian showrooms.
Toyota Australia sales and marketing director John Pappas and Walkinshaw co-owner Ryan Walkinshaw sang from the same songbook at the launch of the 2026 Toyota Gazoo Racing Supercars Supra season at Sydney Motorsport Park.
“Toyota is an important partner of the Walkinshaw Automotive Group and we obviously have a successful program going with the Tundra,” said the team boss.
“Of course, we’re always talking to all of our production partners about other possibilities. We suggest other ideas to them, they suggest other ideas to us – we’re always exploring things like that.”
“But for now our focus is on ensuring the Tundra program is a huge success here in Australia. If there are any other exciting products that may or may not exist in the future as a partnership between our two brands, we will let you know.”
John Pappas, who moved from running local Lexus operations to Toyota Australia sales and marketing vice-president late last year, said the opportunity was there but would have to wait as the team progressed its entry into supercars.
“We already had a really good relationship and were expanding into the supercar space with this GR Supra, so we’ll keep building,” Mr Pappas said.
“Our focus right now is on those two things: It’s about selling more Tundras and growing this brand as a model line and trying to learn through the GR Supra.”
Toyota Australia unveiled a new-generation HiLux in late 2025, with a range-topping GR Sport model previously offered but not yet confirmed for the new model range.
While the Ranger Raptor was developed by Ford Australia, Walkinshaw was previously selected for an upgraded 2020 Volkswagen Amarok “W580”. The latest version, the Amarok W600, is scheduled to go on sale here this year.
Walkinshaw is not the only Australian company in this space.
Premcar developed the Nissan Patrol Warrior in 2023 – a strengthened Patrol with greater off-road capability – which led to a Warrior version of the Navara.
Melbourne-based Premcar has also been working on the suspension tuning of the new Nissan Navara range. Nissan Australia confirmed it will commission the Melbourne-based company to develop a Warrior version of the next Y63 Patrol, due here later this year.
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