Road-going Toyota GR Super Sport hypercar axed – report
The Japanese endurance 'Hypercar' is still slated to compete at Le Mans this month, however its road-going twin appears to be dead in the water.
A road-going variant of Toyota’s GR010 Le Mans Hypercar racer – set to be known as the GR Super Sport, as per a previous concept car (above) – has been axed before reaching production, according to a new report from Racer magazine.
Citing a string of local Japanese sources, the outlet claims a serious accident during testing at the Fuji Speedway last month was the final straw for the setback-plagued program.
The Hypercar category – which replaces the FIA’s LMP1 category as the peak international endurance class – initially mandated 20 examples of each competing vehicle be homologated for the road, however these requirements have since been dropped.
Therefore, the Toyota GR Super Sport race car (shown above) is still expected to compete at Le Mans alongside the Glickenhaus 007 LMH later this month. In 2022 the Peugeot 9X8 and ByKolles PMC Project LMH are expected to join competition, followed by a yet-to-be-named Ferrari model in 2023.
A spokesperson for Toyota Australia was not immediately available for comment on the report. This story will be updated when more information is provided.
While race-ready Hypercars are power-limited to 500kW, it was believed the hybridised twin-turbo 2.4-litre V6 powertrain in the road-going Toyota would send approximately 750kW to the rear wheels via a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission.