Toyota Motor Corporation has revealed plans to return to the top-level motor racing by entering the Le Mans 24 Hours race for the first time in 13 years. This follows Porsche’s announcement last year that it too will make a return to one of the most gruelling endurance races in the world.
Toyota will enter a hybrid petrol-powered prototype in the LM P1 class as soon as the 2012 Le Mans event. This will be the 80th running of this historic endurance race that has seen manufacturers Audi and Peugeot competing for top honours over the past 11 years.
The new racecar’s chassis has already been designed, developed and built by Toyota Motorsport GmbH High Performance Centre in Cologne, Germany and testing will commence towards the end of 2011.
Toyota’s last official appearance at Le Mans was at the 1994 event where the Toyota 94C-V, piloted by Eddie Irvine, Mauro Martini, and Jeff Krosnoff, finished second behind the Porsche-powered Dauer 962 Le Mans car.
Source: LeMans.org
