Seems like the Nürburgring record for an electric vehicle set last August was just the beginning of Toyota’s electric charge into the world of motorsports.
The company’s racing division, Toyota Motorsport, announced today that it will enter the 2012 World Endurance Championship which, for the first time, is organized both by FIA and ACO, the club that runs the 24 Hours of Le Mans race and the Intercontinental Le Mans Series.
The Japanese company will develop a brand-new, gasoline-electric hybrid racer that will compete in the top LMP1 class. The chassis will be built by Toyota Motorsport in its Cologne, Germany headquarters, which previously served as its Formula 1 base, while the hybrid powertrain will be engineered in Japan.
Toyota’s head of motorsport activities, Tadashi Yamashima, commented: “We have competed in Le Mans before, but by using our hybrid technology, our participation in 2012 will be completely new. We want to make history in the Le Mans 24 Hours, as well as in the FIA World Endurance Championship, through the use of our hybrid technology.”
In order to do so, Toyota’s hybrid racer will have to upstage current winner Audi as well as Peugeot, both of which compete in the LMP1 class.
The Japanese automaker hopes that its new assault on Le Mans will yield better results than its last attempt in the late ‘90s with the GT One that was fast but not fast enough to score a win.
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