TOYOTA Gazoo Racing has this week unveiled a radical Prius-based idea automobile to have fun what it says is the “vital contribution of motorsport in growing applied sciences for hybrid highway vehicles”.
The Prius 24h Le Mans Centennial GR Version idea automobile, to make use of its full identify, highlights the most recent in hybrid know-how utilized in Toyota autos and kinds the centrepiece of a tribute to the world’s most well-known race – a race through which Toyota competed with its first hybrid-electric race automobile in 2012.
Toyota is aiming to increase its five-year successful streak on the Le Mans 24 Hour this coming weekend (June 11-12). It’ll enter two GR010 Hybrid race vehicles within the centennial version of the famed enduro, which has been considered a showcase for the most recent automotive applied sciences because the first race was held in 1923.
In a press release, Toyota stated that competing in motorsport had allow its engineers to develop “ever-better hybrid-electric system applied sciences for its road-going manufacturing autos”.
It famous advances equivalent to improved cooling methods, miniaturised inverter know-how, and the developments of silicone carbide and high-voltage semiconductors as simply a number of the classes taken from its motorsport campaigns.
The idea mannequin is 90mm longer (4690mm), 50mm wider (1830mm) and 30mm decrease (1400mm) than the road-going spinoff, and rides on a 40mm wider observe entrance and rear (1600mm and 1610mm respectively). The wheelbase is listed at 2750mm and floor clearance 120mm.
Toyota says the Prius 24h Le Mans Centennial GR Version idea automobile is impressed by its race-ready GR010 Hybrid Le Mans vehicles and is characterised by multi-headlights and a light-weight carbon-fibre bonnet, in addition to “unique efficiency options designed to enhance traction and aerodynamics”.
These embrace aspect skirts, canards, a big rear wing, rear diffuser, and wide-track suspension with 18-inch alloy wheels and 235/50 profile rubber.
Toyota didn’t point out efficiency upgrades of any form, main us to imagine the idea mannequin stays powered by the 164kW 2.0-litre petrol-electric hybrid unit discovered underneath the bonnet of the fifth-generation Prius.
That mannequin, which won’t be provided in Australia, presents a 0-100km/h time of 6.7 seconds and an improved all-electric driving vary of some 50 per cent over the outgoing fourth-gen Prius. The most recent Prius rides on Toyota’s second technology TNGA structure and options its fifth-generation hybrid driveline, as discovered within the Corolla hatch and sedan vary and Corolla Cross SUV.
Dynamic means can also be stated to be improved, Toyota claiming further reinforcement all through the physique for improved rigidity and lowered noise whereas redesigned suspension with MacPherson struts on the entrance and double wishbones on the again promise to enhance cornering and straight-line efficiency.
To this point, complete worldwide Prius gross sales have exceeded 5 million, which Toyota says accounts for a discount equal to not less than 82 million tonnes of CO2 emissions.
Toyota says the event group went again to the drafting board for the brand new Prius, ranging from scratch to design a mannequin that “wants to stay well-liked for the subsequent 25 years”.
