Toyota has confirmed plans to put
the 986-horsepower GR Super Sport Concept into production. The Toyota Gazoo
Racing squad will handle the vehicle's development and will use their expertise
in endurance racing to build what will essentially be a road-going Le Mans
competition machine.
The GR Super Sport will use tech derived from the
TS050 hybrid race car. Power will come from a 2.4-liter biturbo V6 in addition
to what the firm calls the Toyota Hybrid System – Racing. In total this setup
will be good for 986 hp.
Toyota's announcement makes no mention of when the
GR Super Sport would arrive other than stating that development is already
underway. The concept will be on display at this year's 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Photos indicate that the machine makes liberal use
of carbon fiber. Underneath the low-slung body it appears that the lightweight
material makes up the entire monocoque. The company appears to be using
rear-mounted cameras instead of mirrors, which would likely need to change on
the production version because so far only Japan allows their use instead of
traditional pieces of glass.
The GR Super Sport's production announcement comes
as quite a surprise. Toyota originally unveiled the machine at the Tokyo Auto
Salon in January 2018.
