Toyota
Showing posts with label Toyota. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Toyota. Show all posts

Toyota Prius Racing With A V-8 Engine


At January’s Tokyo Auto Salon, Toyota Racing Development (TRD) unveiled Toyota’s latest chapter in hybrid racing technology — the newest edition GT300 specification Prius, which is no ordinary gas-sipping hybrid. Built in partnership with APR Racing, the GT300 will compete in Japan’s exciting Super GT Series for the fifth year.

The Super GT Series is a grand touring racing venue that began in 1993. The cars are divided into two groups: GT300 and GT500 (cars with no more than 300 and 500 horsepower). With both groups of cars on the track at the same time, the racing is dicey and highly entertaining.


This new GT300 joins the other race-spec Toyota hybrid, the TS040. It is a more advanced hybrid racer that competes in the FIA World Endurance Championship, including the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
It Looks Like The New Prius—Sort Of


Every element of the GT300’s bodywork is custom-fabricated in carbon fiber, though TRD and APR Racing were careful to retain the all-new 2016 Prius’ profile and styling cues. The racecar has the same intriguingly shaped front grill, spaceship-like headlights and air intakes. In back, the taillights are the same as those used on the standard Prius. Other than those elements, the track-only car’s aerodynamic package was designed according to Super GT regulations and was built using computational fluid dynamics technology.

The Japanese builder has added center-locking alloy wheels tucked under absolutely massive fender flares, a deep bumper with a big air vent and a dry carbon front splitter. Side skirts, a rear
Stripped down to go fast

diffuser and an oversized wing help generate drag and adhesion to the track surface, especially around high-speed corners. All told, the racecar is much lower and considerably wider than the regular-production hatchback it’s loosely based on.

Inside, the driver sits in a specifically designed bucket seat and faces a multifunction steering wheel crafted out of carbon fiber and a digital information display that replaces the instrument cluster. Other than an added full roll cage, all equipment is removed to make the racing Prius as light as possible.

Vroom, Vroom

This steroidal Prius racer dumps the production model’s 1.8-liter Atkinson cycle four-cylinder engine in favor of the 3.4-liter ‘RV8K’V-8 race engine. The engine’s designation is derived from “racing V8,” using the RV8 prefix that has served a large number of Toyota racing machines, including the Le Mans-competing TS040.

The naturally aspirated 90-degree V-8 features an aluminum block and head along with a dual overhead camshaft design with four valves per cylinder. The engine is detuned from the original 600 horsepower to meet GT 300 regulations of 300 horsepower.

As you might expect from the photo, the big V-8 is not under the hood. Instead, it’s a mid-engine layout with the race engine mounted between the B-pillars and rear axles, delivering torque to the rear wheels via a sequential six-speed manual gearbox.

Of course a Prius can’t be a Prius without a hybrid powerplant. Toyota’s latest Hybrid Synergy Drive system from the 2016 street car is employed, but is relocated to the passenger footwell for better weight distribution. Also borrowed from the new Prius is the electric motor, though with minor modifications to make it racetrack ready. The electric drive system receives its power from a small lithium-ion battery.
Racing Away
A Prius with a different goal

The race team is fielding two Prius racecars in the 2016 season. Hiroaki Nagai and Kota Sasaki pilot the No. 30 car, while Koki Saga and Yuichi Nakayama share driving duties in the No. 31 car.

APR Racing and TRD tweaked the newest GT300 in preparation for the Super GT season opener at Japan’s Okayama International Circuit on April 9 and 10. APR is one of the most successful championship teams in the Super GT300 class, and last year campaigned the outgoing Prius GT300. In that first race the two Prius finished 12th and 14th, one lap off the winning pace. In the second race of the season at Fuji, one Prius finished ninth while the second car fell to 20th in the hotly contested field.

Commenting on his time racing last year’s GT300 Prius, Koki Saga said: “The hybrid system reached a certain maturity with the previous model and now we have the new model, which has [become the] strongest machine APR have ever had. We won twice last year… so our goal this year is to win three times and get the championship.” They have five more races this year to try to make that mark.
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Ford overtakes Toyota in quality rankings

Ford Motor Co. has overtaken Toyota in J.D. Power and Associates’ annual quality rankings which was released yesterday. Ford won model segment awards for the Ford Mustang, Lincoln Mark LT, Lincoln MKZ, Mazda MX-5 Miata and Mercury Milan. This is the first time since 1998, it has won more individual awards than any other automaker. Read the full report here.

Mercedes-Benz and Toyota models won top spots for three segment each. Toyota received awards for the 4Runner, Sequoia and Tacoma. It had grabbed awards in 11 segments last year. Mercedes-Benz won for the E-Class, SL-Class, and the S-Class.

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Toyota Prius is top selling hybrid

The popularity of hybrid cars continue to grow through out the world. It’s been nearly a decade since the first Toyota Prius went on sale. According to this report, cumulative sales of this car totaled 1.047 million as of the end of May.

Toyota is still working on what is expected as the next innovation of hybrids, the switch to lithium-ion batteries.

Toyota now account for 80% of car sales in the US.
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New Toyota model


A new Toyota model was seen on Indian roads. Take a look at the spy shot of the Toyota model codenamed Toyota Cowrolla.

Got this from Arunima’s blog.

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Toyota cautious of becoming number 1

Most manufacturers would be overjoyed to become the #1 carmaker in the US and I guess Toyota is no exception. However, according to this article “Why Toyota Is Afraid Of Being Number One”, they are keen to avoid the backlash that might happen.

Toyota has done a remarkable job over the past 20 years of selling itself as an American company.


Read on on how Toyota became the most respected car company in America.

Sales in different parts of the World, according to the Third Quarter Financial Results:

North America: Vehicle sales reached 764 thousand, an increase of 121 thousand units, due to strong sales of redesigned models such as the RAV4, Camry and Yaris and the new model FJ Cruiser.

Europe: Led by strong sales of compact models such as the Yaris, vehicle sales increased by 60 thousand, to 306 thousand units.

Asia: Sales decreased by 13 thousand, to 204 thousand units, as a result of weakened market conditions in Indonesia and Taiwan.

Other regions, including Central and South America, Oceania and Africa: Vehicle sales increased to 340 thousand units, an increase of 37 thousand, due to continuing popularity of the IMV series in Central and South America and the Camry in Oceania.

Click here for full version.

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Join other Scion lovers


The Scion xB is a 5-door compact vehicle made by the US-exclusive Scion division of Toyota. It has a unique box shape and is targeted at the youth segment of the market known as the “Y” generation.

The xB was one of the three models in Scion’s lineup, the others being the xA and the tC. Launched in 2004, Toyota made the Scion xB attractive to it’s target segment by making it easy to personalize their vehicles by offering an extensive list of factory accessories. This includes light kits, spoilers, wheels and music systems among others. It’s really amazing that you can actually choose your car, customize your vehicle and order it online. Scion builds it to order in about a week.

The maximum suggested retail price for the base models are $14,610 for the manual version and $15,410 for the automatic. This price is of 9/18/06 and includes the delivery, processing and handling fee.

I would consider that as a really good price for a Toyota but the question is, whether it is value for the money?

Going through what owners and fans of this has to say in the scion xb forums, I believe that it indeed is a good buy.

Even though there have been some criticisms that the car looked like a box or a crate or or that it is underpowered (it has a 1.5 liter 4 cylinder engine) it has developed quite a bit of a fan following. Another surprising thing was that even though it was targeted at the young hip generation, a lot of older people in their late 30s were attracted to the car because of it’s fuel efficiency.

Another information I gathered from the forum is that the present Scion xB, which was launched in 2004 is the first generation. Toyota unveiled the second generation xB at the 2007 Chicago Auto Show. It is a larger, more rounded than the present xB and is styled as a 5-door version of the t2B concept unveiled the year before at the 2006 New York Auto Show.


The second-generation xB, which is expected to come out in 2008 is powered by a 2.4L engine shared with the tC and the Camry. That should silence some of the critics who claim that it is underpowered. Besides VSC and ABS, the new generation xB will have six airbags, as well as cruise control as standard.

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