Prius Gets Major Performance Boost

[Sportivo Concepts]

Improving Hybrid Potential

It was just a question of time before Toyota's efficiency-focused engineers chose to squeeze more power from the Prius hybrid. The Prius GT debuted at Goodwood Festival of Speed in England. While using the same engine, electric motor, generator and battery as the standard Prius, the GT boasts a 37-horsepower gain - enough to push 0-60-mph acceleration times down to 8.7 seconds.

Part of the improved acceleration comes from severe weight reduction, with the interior stripped down and built back up in race trim, with two bucket seats and full roll cage. The suspension has upgraded shocks, springs and anti-roll bars to improve handling, though the greatest gain may be simply in the fitting of grippier Celica tires. Yet another harbinger of hybrids to come, the technology is proving green and fun can coexist.

[02RSX90camry]

how did they gain the 37 hp? is that the same as teh turbo prius link i posted a couple months back?

[Fresco Bob]

they should throw on a cf hood and trunk/hatch to help reduce weight to, that would be pretty cool

[Sportivo Concepts]

nope its not a turbo, the just reprogrammed, the ECU and the program for the electric motor.

I made a post about this a few months back as well as an indepth article on my site

[ea8631]

I read that news from another area and they said it use 1NZ-FE (from echo, 105hp??) instead of the original 1NZ-FXE(around 75hp).

[Sportivo Concepts]

yeah, and just by that switch alone there was a 29% gain in power, click here for the orginal article from back in June

[userlain]

People who buy a Prius aren't in it for the performance. Did the performance boost stagger the efficiency of the hybrid engine?

[Warped]

No, they don't, but maybe Toyota is trying to shed the image that Hybrids are just for penny-pinchers and tree-huggers.

Good shit.

[Squidward]

I'm glad to see someone working on improving the performance of a hybrid. The TDI community has been actively eeking out more performance from their cars for years. Sure, there are those in the TDI community who are die-hard economy nuts but there's a lot of us into performance, too.

[onehotcamry]

cool that u can still have environment friendly mixed in with a little fun