Building a race car is not a simple task, especially when you are setting your goals high like winning the prestigious 24 Hours of Le Mans. Toyota has been trying to do so these couple of years with the TS040 Hybrid LMP1 racer and they even came close to winning the race. And with such racing pedigree, sometimes PR departments would like people to believe that their road cars do have DNAs derived from their fast-paced race cars. Toyota certainly is not lying on this one.
Already working on a replacement for the hybrid Prius, Toyota has been testing parts destined for the car in their LMP1 TS040 Hybrid Le Mans racer, which currently is leading the WEC championship standings.
“Our components already have parts from the next-generation Prius,” said the president of Toyota Motorsport GmBH Yoshiaki Kinoshita to Autonews. Although Kinoshita did not go into details on which part exactly is being used, they were not mechanical parts. Instead, the ones used are preproduction prototypes of microchips and microcontrollers that are tested under the punishing conditions of endurance racing.
The TS040 does have something in common with the street-going cars; the need for fuel efficiency. This Le Mans racer has been redesigned to reduce its fuel consumption by 25-percent compared to the 2013 TS030. This means that the car can stay on the track longer with minimal pit stops, thus increasing their chances in winning the race.
