Hybrid racer previews coming Toyota road car

January 16, 2021January 18, 2021 John Carey 2156 Views electric car, ev, gazoo racing, gr, gr super sport, GR010, hypercar, le mans, Toyota

Though the Toyota GR010 Hybrid Le Mans Hypercar is purpose-built to win races, the road-legal version to follow is sure to be even more powerful.

The new racer was revealed ahead of the start of the six-race 2021 World Endurance Championship series in March. With it, Toyota aims to continue its three-years-in-a-row winning streak at the famed 24 Hours of Le Mans later in the year.

It’s not known exactly when Toyota will whip the sheet off its promised GR Super Sport hypercar for the highway, but you can count on it resembling what you see here.

Toyota Gazoo Racing GR010 hybrid hypercar to be used in the 2021 World Endurance Championship (WEC) — Toyota Gazoo Racing’s GR010 Hybrid Le Mans Hypercar will contest the six-race 2021 World Endurance Championship (WEC)

“The GR010 is a preview of our road-going cars,” said Toyota Gazoo Racing president Hisatake Murata at the racer’s presentation. “What we learn on the WEC racetracks will directly benefit our customers.” Gazoo Racing is Toyota’s competition and high-performance department.

Because it’s specifically designed for the new top-level Hypercar prototype class in endurance racing, the GR010’s maximum power is capped at 500kW. The car’s 3.5-litre twin-turbo V6 alone can produce this much, while its electric motor can deliver up to 200kW, but electronic controls prevent the combined output of the two exceeding the allowed limit.

The rules also permit only one electric motor to be used and the GR010’s drives its front axle. Via a seven-speed sequential gearbox, the V6 drives only the rear wheels.

This means the new GR010 is going to be slower around a circuit than the TS050 Hybrid it replaces. That racer conformed with the rulebook for the LMP1 category. While it also featured an electric front axle, there was an extra electric motor that helped its 2.4-litre twin-turbo V6 engine drive the rear wheels.

The smaller ICE of the TS050 was a real powerhouse, punching out more than 700kW. And it’s this engine, not the new 3.5-litre V6 of the GR010, that will be used as the still-to-be-seen GR Super Sport road car.

For longevity and durability, the GR Super Sport’s engine is almost sure to be detuned compared to race specification. But the car’s electric boost system will more than compensate for any precautionary power cut.

So it’s reasonable to expect the GR Super Sport will have 700kW-plus. Toyota Gazoo Racing’s engineers may give in to the temptation to hit or exceed the 1000 metric horsepower mark set by the Ferrari SF90 Stradale hybrid. That’s 736kW…

Toyota Gazoo Racing showed off a camouflaged prototype of the GR Super Sport at the 24 Hours of Le Mans last year. It was driven by former F1 driver and Le Mans winner Alex Wurz.

The display lap at Le Mans was a chance for Toyota to signal that it’s ready to take on the hyper-hybrids being prepared for production by big names that sell in small volumes compared to the Japanese giant.

These include the Mercedes-AMG One, which will have a road-legal version of the engine used in the company’s F1 cars, and the Aston Martin Valkyrie, developed in collaboration with the Red Bull F1 race team.

John Carey

Grew up in country NSW, way back when petrol was laced with lead. Has written about cars and the car business for more than 35 years, working full-time and freelance for leading mags, major newspapers and websites in Australia and (sometimes) overseas. Avidly interested in core EV technologies like motors and batteries, and believes the switch to electromobility definitely should be encouraged. Is waiting patiently for someone to make a good and affordable EV that will fit inside his tiny underground garage in northern Italy, where he's lived for the past decade. Likes the BMW i3, but it's just too damned wide...