Toyota Gazoo Racing (GR) is gearing up to reveal a new concept car at Le Mans, and it’s shaping as something a bit left-field.
A new teaser from Toyota GR shows what appears to be a Prius, the renowned hybrid economy car, lurking in a pit lane garage wearing a more aggressive new look.
The shadowy outline appears to be a Prius with four low-set fog lights on each side of the air intake, along with a more prominent front lip and canards on the front fenders.
The GR badge and Gazoo Racing number plates are also giveaways…
Gazoo Racing says whatever is coming will be “equipped with vehicle technologies that have been developed through numerous challenges in motorsports participation”.
World Endurance Racing (WEC) hypercars are now powered by hybrid systems capable of starting on electric power only, before the petrol engine fires – essentially, a motorsports take on the Prius’ hybrid powertrains.
It’s not clear if some of that WEC magic will rub off on the Prius concept. The range-topping plug-in hybrid packs 164kW of power, and has a warm-hatch-rivalling 0-100km/h time of 6.7 seconds.
Previous reports from Japan suggested Toyota was gearing up to reveal a Prius GR Sport, based on the Prius PHEV.
Along with a stiffer body shell, tweaked suspension, and sharper steering, those reports suggested the PHEV could pick up more power courtesy of a pumped-up petrol engine.
Toyota is expanding its range of GR cars. In the full-on GR range there’s now the GR Supra, Yaris, Corolla, and 86, and while the GR Sport range includes the C-HR and LandCruiser in Australia.
The Prius, however, remains off limits for our market.
