Flashy 2023 Toyota Crown Gets Flashier Gazoo Racing and Modellista Accessories

Last week Toyota officially released images and some info on the 16th generation Crown model, a nameplate that helped establish the brand in the U.S. in the 1950s but disappeared from our market a few decades later. Overseas, the Crown continued to push ahead and sold well enough to last a lifetime in terms of automotive years, and will now re-enter the American market with an odd, lifted sedan layout and a hybrid power plant.

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Wasting no time, accessories, wheels, and aero additions have already been established as shown by a few Japanese manufacturers that are backing up the high-riding 4-door. One of those groups is Gazoo Racing, a name you've become quite familiar with in recent years as the "GR" tag has been added to cars that include the modern Supra, 86, Yaris, and upcoming Corolla. Motorsports and performance roots add some additional spice to these models though in the case of the Crown, the changes are almost entirely aesthetic.

Nosebleed Section

To take a little bit of height off the new Toyota offering, Gazoo Racing's Voguish line involved whipping up a bold front bumper spoiler with color-matched winged ends that feature black plastic trimmed edges to match that of the fender trim. To meet the new bumper line, side skirts separated into four pieces also wear the factory body color and carry a winged rear portion.

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In the past, aftermarket brands have sometimes designed sides skirts in two separate pieces for each side in order to lower shipping costs by utilizing smaller boxes and using strategic packaging. The lower portion of the rear bumper gets an angular lip that matches the mid-sections sharp, inward pointed bumper line. A subtle trunk spoiler with a very flat and wide base is also made available.

Perhaps a sign of the times, GR developed huge 21-inch cast aluminum wheels with a black and machined finish, wrapped in 225/45 Michelin, which can also be included to round out the appearance package.

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Damp Conditions

There weren't any power-producing options though some additional accessories were debuted. A Yamaha-built Performance Damper isn't what you think and doesn't involve the car's shocks at all. It's actually a multi-link rod that mounts to the Crown's front end and grants increased steering stability while helping to decrease NVH.

If you're going nuts adding these JDM additions, then you might want to throw in the GR Door Handle Protectors that, uhh, protect your door handles. At least, they guard the painted area just behind the door handle that often gets scratched during use (Mugen offers the same item but in carbon fiber for Honda models).

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Last but not least, we suppose, are the GR Door Stabilizers. We've never heard of anything like this before, but Gazoo Racing suggests that by inserting their spacer kit to fill the small gap behind the door's striker, the Crown's response is improved while steering. No word on why these wouldn't be standard if they're effective.

In It For The Long Haul

Modellista is another group closely related to Toyota vehicles. Having established themselves back in 1997 with a focus on conversion vehicles and some accessories, they later would switch to accessories only in 2002 and it's not at all uncommon to find Modellista-adorned Toyotas used as a sales promoting tool. They too attacked the new Crown generation with some aesthetic upgrades.

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The Modellista take separates itself from the GR treatment first by using color-matched fender garnish, eliminating the native "plastic look." Its front lip juts forward with both ends helping to shape the front portion of the wheel well using sculpted features and a tie into those painted arches.

Like the Gazoo version, the side skirts have been separated in four pieces and appear to hang lower as well. Just above the muscular skirts are door garnish covers that again pull away from the naked plastic factory touches. That look continues onto the rear bumper where a body-matched cap covers the black plastic, brings the sides of the bumper a few inches lower, and creates what look to be faux exhaust finishers.

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Additional options include mild front grill and side mirror garnish pieces and another option for the big wheel lovers with 21-inch rollers in a black and polished look that Modellista named "Wing Dancer XVIII."

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Both brand's have the accessories displayed on their websites though it's too soon to known whether all of the parts mentioned above will fit the U.S. model without modification.