Toyota has unveiled the latest version of its HiLux-bodied Dakar and FIA World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC) challenger, and revealed how its Australian team played a part in creating the off-road racer.
The Toyota DKR GR Hilux has already won four Dakar Rallies in the car class, including the most recent edition of the gruelling Saudi Arabia-based event, though the launch of a new HiLux necessitated a face change.
As such, the latest edition of the vehicle has bodywork designed as a part of a collaboration between the race team which runs it, as well as the Toyota Design Australia team, based at the brand’s local headquarters in Altona, Melbourne.
Like the road-going HiLux upon which it’s based – that is now arriving in Australian dealerships – the DKR GR Hilux gets a trimmed front design with thin headlights and ‘TOYOTA’ bonnet lettering, while it appears the new ute’s tail lights also feature at the back.
Underneath the skin is where it distances itself from the HiLux you can buy, being based on a tubular chassis, now revised to provide increased torsional stiffness at a reduced weight, while there’s also a new reinforced transmission.
Powering the DKR GR HiLux is a highly modified version of Toyota’s twin-turbo 3.4-litre ‘V35A’ V6 petrol engine, as found in the Tundra, and the upcoming LandCruiser 300 Series hybrid.
On top of the Australian design, the Toyota team is also heading to the Dakar Rally with an Australian driver, after Toby Price announced last month he’d join the factory-backed squad for 2026.
The two-time Dakar bikes champion made his first four-wheel start in the rally last year. He will be paired with navigator Armand Monleón, who won the 2025 W2RC title with Lucas Moraes.
Other entrants in the Toyota Gazoo Racing team include South Africans Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings, who placed second in the 2025 Dakar Rally, and US driver-navigator combination Seth Quintero and Andrew Short.
The Dakar Rally takes place from January 3 to 17, and is the first of five events on the 2026 W2RC calendar.
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