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Toyota TS030 Hybrid (2012) first pics of new Le Mans racer

By Ben Pulman

First Official Pictures

25 January 2012 10:30

Toyota has unveiled its new Le Mans challenger, the TS030 Hybrid. The TS030 name designates this car as the successor to the TS010 and TS020 (better known at the GT-One) which competed at Le Mans in the 1990s – TS stands for Toyota Sport.

What? This Toyota TS030 is a hybrid racecar?

That’s right – and would you expect anything less from a company that’s been at the forefront of producing hybrid road cars? The engine is a 90-deg V8 with a 3.4-litre capacity, the maximum allowed for naturally aspirated petrol engines under Le Mans rules.

Toyota is currently testing two hybrid packs, a front-mounted AW Aisin unit and a rear-mounted Denso motor. A maximum of 500kJ of energy can be recovered (it’s stored in a Nisshinbo super capacitor) but it can only be deployed through one axle.

Toyota’s Motor Sport Division in Japan produces the hybrid powertrain, while Toyota Motorsport GmbH in Germany builds the carbonfibre chassis. The bodywork is also carbonfibre, the windscreen is built from lightweight polycarbonate, the gearbox is a transverse-mounted six-speed sequential unit, suspension is by double wishbones with pushrods, the brakes are carbon and the 18in wheels are forged from magnesium.