In 2018, a Toyota GR road-going hypercar was teased in the guise of the Japanese manufacturer’s Super Sport concept with the understanding that it would be a supplementary product to its racecar alternative that would be competing in the WEC’s new Le Mans Hypercar discipline. A new rumour suggests that this project has now been shelved due to a serious incident during testing at Fuji Speedway.
As Racer reports, a Toyota GR road-going hypercar has been under development for the past three years with the most recent iteration of this ca being teased at the LMH program announcement at the Circuit de la Sarthe in front of the media. Earlier this month however, this unit caught fire and was badly damaged after what has been described as a serious incident. Because of this, the future of this product has been put in doubt.
This incident regarding the Toyota GR road-going hypercar however, does not put the GR010 WEC racer into limbo because it was built against the technical regulations for a prototype-based hypercar and not for one based around a road car like the Aston Martin Valkyrie. Therefore, there is no requirement for a parallel road car program in those regulations.
Earlier this year, it was suggested that this example would be fitted with a new 3.5-litre twin-turbo V6 hybrid powertrain with three electric motors that is rumoured to produce in excess of 735 kW.
On the racing front, Toyota has confirmed a multi-year commitment to the Le Mans Hypercar tournament with some senior program sources informing the publication that there is no current risk to the race program with the occurrence of this incident
The team is also understood to now be dipping its feet into additional races in the IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship following the confirmation of eligibility for the LMH-rules cars in the North American Series from 2023, with a limited number of endurance races the most likely supplement to its current full-season WEC plans.
