Toyota breaks Nürburgring lap record
Quiet and quick… Toyota Motorsport has smashed the lap record for an electric vehicle at the Nurburgring.
A NEW lap record for an electric vehicle has been set around Germany’s legendary Nürburgring Nordschleife circuit.
Toyota’s Motorsport EV P001, with 100 per cent electric powertrain, set a new lap record of seven minutes and 47.794secs to beat the previous lap record of nine minutes and 1.338secs.
The car has two electric motors and a top speed of 161mph.
Such performance shows Toyota Motorsport’s electric powertrain is ideal to power any future single-make electric motorsport series and Toyota Motorsport will begin commercial sales of this technology in 2012.
Pascal Vasselon, Toyota Motorsport’s technical dDirector, said: “On the record lap the Toyota Motorsport EV P001 performed better than in testing. We have enhanced our electric powertrain development thanks to the information our engineers have gained.”
Rob Leupen, of Toyota Motorsport, added: “This is a very impressive achievement which really shows the huge potential for electric powertrains to deliver fast, exciting action on the race track. There’s no doubt that electric motorsport can be every bit as thrilling as traditional racing and it was an amazing sensation to watch the Toyota Motorsport electric vehicle fly past on the Nordschleife, with only the sound of wind rushing past and tyres squealing. But this is not the end of the story for Toyota Motorsport and I hope we will see our electric powertrains in action on the track again soon.”