Toyota To Compete In Le Mans With Hybrid Cars

Toyota is making it's return to the Le Mans Endurance Race, using the iconic cars from their 90s era.  But all is not as it seems, as under the bonnet you'll see they're running on high-performance hybrid engines.

This makes Toyota the first manufacturer to enter a hybrid in the FIA World Endurance Championship.  The beating heart of this eco-warrior is to be the THS-R (Toyota Hybrid System-Racing).  The combination of a 3.4 litre V8 with an electric motor driving the wheels makes for a fuel prolonging endurance advantage over the competition.  This, along with the kinetic energy recovery system, turning energy generated under the masses of braking around corners into additional power to shoot out of the apex.

"Of course we would love to win Le Mans; that is the dream for all competitors in this race," team president Yoshiaki Kinoshita said in a statement to Wired. "But we are realistic and we know we need to develop and to learn in order to compete with some very strong competition. Our target this year is to show the performance level of our car and particularly the THS-R powertrain."

We look forward to seeing how this new technology affects the team's racing strategy and performance compared to the rest of the grid.

Source: Wired