Toyota confirms hybrid 24 Hours of Le Mans race car
Toyota is eyeing a return to the world’s most famous endurance race, the French 24 Hours of Le Mans, with a hybrid race car: a first in the race’s 84-year history. “We want to enter when we are confident of victory,” said to Kazuo Okamoto, who heads up the company’s research and development department. Such an attitude certainly fits in with the “win on Sunday, sell on Monday” approach, as racing has been proven to test and improve technology that will trickle down to street cars customers can buy, not to mention boosting Toyota’s “green” image.
The Japanese auto giant has not announced when it will return to Le Mans, with Okamoto saying only that Toyota’s hybrid racing efforts may resume in 2009, as per Automotive News Europe. Participating in the race next year would mark Toyota’s 10-year absence from Le Mans, where it finished second in 1999 before moving on to focus on Formula One.
Last year, a Toyota Supra hybrid won Japan’s 24-hour endurance race, the Tokachi 24, though Okamoto is quick to downplay that accomplishment: “The Tokachi means nothing,” he said. “Our goal is a step higher.”
Okamoto went to say the company will introduce high-tech hybrid technology in street cars. “If you want to use hybrid systems in sports cars, you have to make cars lighter and more efficient,” he said.
Like LLN reported in January, the candidate most likely to represent Toyota in the 24 hour race will either be its Lexus LF-A or FT-HS, both sleek, sports car concepts with hybrid technology believed to be the Supra’s successors.
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