Toyota is keeping details of its new racer, including the car’s appearance, under wraps until late March.

Toyota Motor Corp.
When people hear “hybrid car” they often think of the Toyota Prius, a compact, sometimes polarizing model that almost single-handedly put hybrid automotive technology on the map. But soon the term may conjure images of more exotic machinery.
The Japanese car maker revealed certain details about its new TS040 race car following track tests in France. The carbon-fiber prototype racer is designed to compete in the premier LMP1 category of the World Endurance Championship series or WEC.
Toyota has competed with hybrid technology before, and Audi has won big races with hybrid sports cars. Porsche is entering a hybrid racer as well. However, new rules for the 2014 season alter the cars’ dimensions and place fewer limits on the use of hybrid power to boost overall performance. So the TS040 is largely a new design compared with previous Toyota racers, the company said.
The rules allow about twice as much hybrid boost to overall power as before and there are no longer limits on when in the driver can use that extra horsepower. In the old car the hybrid system directed an extra 300 horsepower to the rear wheels, but the new version develops “substantially more” power and sends it to all four wheels.
The company said the race car will help it develop “road relevant” systems for the cars it sells to consumers. Toyota said it will reveal more details about the car when it begins official testing at the end of March.

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