After a long absence, Toyota will return to Le Mans and compete in the 2012 FIA World Endurance Championship Series.
Toyota will compete in the 24 Hours Of Le Mans next year with a new hybrid power racecar, above. Its return to the world’s most famous endurance race will be with a new LMP1 chassis designed, developed and produced by Toyota Motorsport in Germany. It will be showcasing a hybrid-gasoline powertrain engineered by Toyota in Japan.
Participation at Le Mans will be one of a number of races Toyota plans to enter in the 2012 FIA World Endurance Championship, a series that will enable it to further explore the potential of its advanced hybrid technology. The new team will be based at Toyota Motorsport, Cologne, Germany, and the new hybrid racecar will be rolled out early in 2012 for pre-season testing
“Toyota has entered Le Mans before, but by using our hybrid technology this time will be a completely new challenge. We want to write a new chapter in the history of the Le Mans 24 Hours, as in the FIA World Endurance Championship, through our use of hybrid technology,” said, Tadashi Yamashina, Toyota Motor Corporation Senior Managing Officer and Toyota Motorsport Chairman
Toyota last competed in the Le Mans 24 Hours as a manufacturer in the late-1990s, racing the GT-One and posting a new lap record in 1999.
Toyota Motorsport also set a new electric vehicle (EV) lap record at Nurburgring’s legendary Nordschleife circuit last month. The Toyota Motorsport EV P001, with 100-percent electric powertrain and Jochen Krumbach at the wheel, set a new lap record of 7 minutes, 47.794 seconds, above & below. It beat the previous lap record of 9 minutes, 1.338 seconds.
Powered by two electric motors, the Toyota Motorsport EV P001 has a top speed of 161 mph. Rated at 590 pound-feet of torque, the motors allowed the racecar, shod with road-legal tires, to achieve impressive speeds on the challenging Nordschleife course.
For more information about Toyota’s racing activities, please visit, http://www.toyota-motorsport.com/
http://www.toyotaracing.com/