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#1 · (Edited)
Toyota reveals new Le Mans car
What do we know about Toyota’s new Le Mans entry?

Toyota announced in late 2011 that it would be entering the 2012 Le Mans 24hrs, and a select number of other endurance races. Toyota Motorsport GmbH, based in Cologne, Germany, has designed, developed and built the LMP1-spec chassis, and the petrol-hybrid powertrain is being produced by Toyota in Japan.

Toyota has chosen a closed-cockpit design for its new racer (Audi switched to a closed-cockpit design last year, while Aston Martin’s massively uncompetitive AMR-One went the other way) and the huge ‘shark fin’ stretching from the cockpit back to the rear wing is mandated by race regulations and is an attempt to stop the cars flipping during high-speed spins.

Toyota hasn’t yet revealed the exact specifications of its hybrid powertrain, but the race regulations limit naturally aspirated petrol engines to a maximum capacity of 3400cc, while forced induction engines are set to a 2000cc maximum – turbodiesels are set to 3700cc. All vehicles must weight at least 900kg whatever their choice of fuel, and petrol-hybrid racers have a maximum fuel tank capacity of 73 litres (it's 75 for petrol cars, 65 for diesels, and 71 for diesel hybrids).

The 80th running of the Le Mans 24hrs is 16-17 June 2012.
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#29 ·
Looking bad for ALMS lovers out there. If what I've been hearing is true; kiss LMP 1,2,& C in north America good bye. Current rumors coming down the grape vine suggest beefed up Daytona Prototypes as the premier class, followed by ALMS GT spec cars. Also ST may be on the chopping block.
 
#30 ·
Toyota’s Alex Wurz on pole for WEC race in Brazil
Toyota driver Alex Wurz on Friday snatched pole position for Saturday’s Sao Paulo 6 Hours—a round of the FIA World Endurance Championship—on his first flying lap of qualifying.

Wurz set a time of 1 minute, 22.871 seconds aboard the solo Toyota TS030 Hybrid to claim pole from sports-car newcomer Lucas di Grassi in an Audi R18 ultra around the 2.68-mile Interlagos circuit. The Austrian then shaved half a second from his time to record a 1:22.363 on his second lap to go nearly eight-tenths of a seconds quicker and reach the head of the timesheets.

“I am very pleased to bring home this pole position,” Wurz said. “We said at the beginning of this project that if in year one we could make a pole, it would be a dream. We are using new technology in a car made against the clock, so with this gap I am extremely happy.”

Wurz dedicated his pole to ex-Formula One medical delegate Sid Watkins, who died earlier this week at the age of 84.

Third place went to the hybrid Audi R18 e-tron quattro driven by Andre Lotterer. The German was just under two-tenths shy of his teammate.

The fastest privateer LMP1 runner was Neel Jani in the Rebellion Racing Lola-Toyota B12/60. The Swiss shaded Danny Watts in the Strakka Racing HPD ARX-03a by just more than a tenth of a second.

Honors in the closely-fought LMP2 class went to Stephane Sarrazin in the Starworks Motorsport HPD ARX-03b. His best lap of 1:27.048 bettered John Martin’s second-place time of 1:27.153.
 
#44 ·
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