Race tech meets road-legal.
The Tokyo Auto Salon will serve as the backdrop for the launch of what’s being dubbed as the ‘GR Super Sport Concept,’ the brainchild of Toyota Gazoo Racing. The nascent performance arm of the Japanese automotive giant may have already made a splash with things like its supercharged Yaris hatch, but it clearly has far greater ambitions in its sights.
The Super Sport was conceived as a way to display how “technological feedback acquired through motorsports activities is incorporated,” sort of like a verification that its efforts in motorsports actually leads to real-world benefits. Not many are aware of just how much racing can contribute to innovation on road cars, with many manufacturers using motorsports entries as a way to trial groundbreaking new technology in the most difficult and trying environments out there: the racetrack.
Toyota Gazoo will be leveraging on their experience at the World Endurance Championship in their development of the Super Sport Concept, which suggests that a hybrid powertrain lurks beneath the slinky, highly-streamlined body. The sole teaser image released also shows off aggressive aerodynamic addenda, which puts it in league with other motorsports-inspired cars like the Mercedes-AMG Project One, and the Aston Martin Valkyrie. Not the sort of company you’d usually associate with Toyota now, is it?
At the Tokyo Auto Salon, Toyota Gazoo Racing will be showing off all sorts of serious driver-focused offerings at its stand, with cars like the 86 GR and the Yaris GRMN (which they call the Vitz) set to accompany the Super Sport when it debuts.
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