Toyota Motorsports division Gazoo Racing (TGR) has unveiled the Toyota Prius 24h Le Mans Centennial GR Edition Concept, which likely heralds serial sports version of the popular hybrid liftback.
Debuted in 1997, the first-generation Toyota Prius became a pioneer of mass hybridization in the modern automotive industry and set the general direction of development towards «green» technologies. Second- and third-generation Priuses were very popular with first-wave eco-activists and, let's say, the right people in general — in Hollywood films of the early 2000s and later, almost every second positive character drives a Prius, and often this is some kind of professor with quirks or a housewife in crisis. Starting with the fourth generation, Toyota began to hard break the boring image of the Prius, but overdid it with the design — it turned out to be too pretentious.
>Finally, last fall, the “fifth” Prius saw the light of day and lied to a flurry of applause around the world — this is exactly what many wanted: a concise, but at the same time very effective and even passionate design, combined with noticeably more powerful power plants. The market career of the «fifth» Prius, in fact, has just begun, it is too early to judge the success — it is only clear that Toyota continues to develop the sporting charisma of this model.
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At the beginning of the year, rumors appeared in the Japanese media that the new Prius would have a sports version from TGR, and perhaps not even one, and today its prologue took place in the form of a concept with the long name Toyota Prius 24h Le Mans Centennial GR Edition. TGR specialists have prepared it for the anniversary race at Le Mans — this year the legendary daily marathon is celebrating a century. Toyota Gazoo Racing has won Le Mans five times in a row in 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022 with its hybrid sports proto-cars.
1/6 2/6 3/6 4/6 5/6 6/6The hybrid Prius in such a triumphant context looks quite organic, especially since the TGR team provided it with spectacular track obsessions: a new front bumper with powerful “four-gas” headlights for night racing, a massive front spoiler and side canards; carbon fiber hood, sills, wheel arch extensions and rear wing; new rear bumper with diffuser. In addition, the track has been widened and ground clearance has been reduced. Aerodynamic wheels specially designed for the concept are shod in Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tires.
the stuffing of the concept is not reported. Recall that the most powerful fifth-generation production Prius has a 223-horsepower hybrid power plant and can accelerate to 100 km/h in 6.7 seconds — the owners of the previous Prius could only dream of such dynamics. It is possible that the serial «hot» Prius from TGR will be even more powerful — Toyota has proven more than once in recent years that it can pleasantly surprise sports car lovers.
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