Toyota To Race The Prius

[Sportivo Concepts]

The squeaky clean Toyota Prius will race in one of the world's great speed record meetings at the famous annual Bonneville Nationals Speed Week meeting in Utah in August.

The car is undergoing an amazing transformation at the Toyota's motorsport workshop in Torrance, Los Angeles.

So why is Toyota turning its pioneering fuel-sipping Prius into a land-speed rocket? To prove that hybrid technology, which will be commonplace in models in less than five years, does not mean cars will be dull, slow and boring. And because the Prius' participation will provide the basis for rules to be drawn up for a new hybrid class starting next year.

The souped-up Prius will run bigger tires to achieve better gear ratios while more power will be extracted from the electric motor. Run in the harsh environment of a massive salt flat at an elevation of 4264', the Prius's dual power system will be a bonus. The electric motor will not be affected by the altitude like a regular combustion engine.

Chuck Wade, director of Toyota's Motorsports technical group, says that 150mph is a realistic speed. The Prius will be driven by Aaron Robinson, from the leading magazine Car And Driver.

If you ask me I think they are using this as a stepping stone to make something like the Alessandro Volta Concept a reality and an actual production car.

[Phi]

Originally posted by Sportivo Concepts

...the Prius's dual power system will be a bonus. The electric motor will not be affected by the altitude like a regular combustion engine.

Interesting advantage. I'm anxious to see how the team does. Go Toyota Motorsports!

I sure hope they apply what they learn to build the Volta. Seksi I tell ya!!

[Razo-E]

In Torrance, eh...?

ill go grab my telescope..

[SmokingTires]

Yeah, hybrids can put down some insane power.

The gas engine is the same model as some other cars (I forget which one) so there are performance parts avalible for it, along with a supercharger.

As for the electric engine, it's programming is based on algorithems. These tell the engine how to perform and what it should be limited to. But the great part about that is, you could re-program them at will. Just wire your computer in, and you could modify the electric engine to go from econo to maximum performance. You could easily have it putting out major power 9for small amounts of time obviously. 24/7 would kill it).

But the cool thing is, you could drive to the track, program it for power, and then re-program it and get 40+ mpg on the way home. It would be that easy.