Motorsport

Toyota is the world's largest car maker and it is going sports car racing. Next year it intends to enter the hotly-contested LMP1 class with a car powered by a petrol hybrid power-train. Toyota's intention to promote its hybrid engine prowess appears certain to invigorate Le Mans racing as Peugeot already has a hybrid diesel under testing for next year and Porsche is rumored to have a hybrid race car ready by 2013. Read More

Toyota is continuing to make its mark at the Nürburgring Nordschleife circuit. Just over a week after its Toyota Motorsport GmbH division claimed the lap record for an electric vehicle at the circuit in the TMG EV PV001, its Lexus luxury vehicle division is claiming the even more illustrious lap record for a production car. The record run came in a Lexus LFA Nürburgring Edition driven by Japanese LFA race and test driver Akira Iida, who clocked a time of 7 minutes 14.64 seconds on the 22 km (13.7 mile) circuit to eclipse the previous record time of 7 minutes 18.1 seconds set in a Porsche 911 GT2 RS in April 2010. Read More

Toyota Motorsport GmbH (TMG) has knocked more than a minute off the lap record for an electric vehicle at the Nürburgring Nordschleife circuit. With a time of 7 minutes, 47.794 seconds, the TMG EV P001 beat the previous record of 9 minutes 1.338 seconds set by the Peugeot EX1 in April. TMG achieved its aim of becoming the first EV to break the eight-minute barrier on August 29 in fine weather with the track temperatures remaining relatively low. Read More

Toyota Motorsport GmbH (TMG) will attempt to set a new lap record for an electric vehicle at the legendary Nürburgring later this month. The attempt will be made in the TMG 100 percent electric car that is based on a two-seater sportscar chassis fitted with a high-performance electric powertrain developed by TMG. With a top speed of 260 km/h (161.5 mph) and the ability to go from 0 to 100 km/h (62 mph) in 3.9 seconds, the vehicle will be looking to better the current EV lap record of 9 minutes 1.1338 seconds set earlier this year by the Peugeot EX1. Read More

We've written quite a bit about the first virtual-to-real racer, Lucas Ordonez, and his continuing exploits as a successful professional racing driver. The winner of the first Playstation Nissan GT Academy in 2008, Lucas is now racking up first class results in the incredibly competitive ILMC series, finishing second in class in the Le Mans 24 hour last month. Now the legitimacy of the entire experiment has gained further credibility with the immediate success of the second Academy (2010) winner Jordan Tresson. Competing in the Blancpain Endurance Series, Jordan finished fourth at Monza in his first outing in the series and last Sunday, the RJN Motorsport GT4-class Nismo Nissan 370Z he shared with Alex Buncombe and Chris Ward won its class at the 24 hour race at Spa Francorchamps in Belgium's Ardennes region. The third (2011) GT academy winners are also shaping up as international class too. Read More

Every year the steep countryside in the Rocky Mountains 10 miles west of Colorado Springs echoes with the roar of engines as entrants negotiate the treacherous switchbacks of the annual Pikes Peak International Hill Climb. This year, however, a number of vehicles will be making the climb in near silence, including Nissan's all-electric LEAF. The LEAF's entry in the 89th Pikes Peak International Hill Climb marks the motorsport debut of the vehicle that, aside from the removal of a few interior parts to make way for safety equipment, will be very similar to the LEAFs that roll off the production line. Read More

Billed as world's first race series exclusively for zero-emission electric cars, the EV Cup was originally scheduled to kick off its inaugural season in the U.K. at Silverstone on August 6, 2011. It has now been delayed and will start out in the U.S. with two race events in California at Laguna Seca in November and Auto Club Speedway in December, ahead of a full series launch in 2012. EV Cup organizers say they wanted to ensure that everything was ready before the series kicks off and cited safety requirements, car delivery schedules and the need for testing time as the reasons for the switch. Read More

Clarkson University (New York) was the overall winner in the 2011 Clean Snowmobile Challenge, a collegiate design competition put on by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) and hosted by Michigan Technological University. This year’s competition was billed as “the greenest yet,” with a record number of electric snowmobiles participating. The event was held March 7-12 at MTU’s Keweenaw Research Center in Houghton, Michigan. 17 student teams competed in the zero emissions and internal combustion categories. Read More

When Porsche promises a world premiere you expect something very special and as the curtain went up on the North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) this morning, it delivered. The company has taken the drivetrain of the 911 GT3 R Hybrid and spliced it together with the silky lines of the 918 Spyder Concept to create the Porsche 918 RSR – a mid-engine coupé that puts out a remarkable 767 hp at peak using the combined forces of its direct injection V8 engine and electric motors on each of the front wheels. Read More