Powered by biowaste - Chairman Akio Toyoda is flying down to race this H2-burning Toyota GR Corolla at Thailand's 10-hour endurance race
Hans · Dec 18, 2023 06:21 PM
0
0
One year after signing a deal with Thailand’s Charoen Pokphand Group (CP) - one of the world’s largest food companies – to generate hydrogen from waste collected from the CP Group’s chicken farms, Toyota will now demonstrate its practical approach to carbon neutrality by racing a hydrogen-burning internal combustion engine Toyota GR Corolla.
Unlike the fuel-cell electric Toyota Mirai that combines hydrogen with oxygen to generate electricity to power the car’s drive motor, this GR Corolla retains the standard race-ready car’s 1.6-litre 3-cylinder turbocharged engine, but instead of burning petrol, it now burns hydrogen.
The hydrogen-burning GR Corolla will be part of Rookie Racing’s three-car team at this weekend’s Idemitsu Super Endurance Southeast Asia Trophy 2023, at Thailand’s Chang International Circuit in Buriram.
Rookie Racing is run separately from Toyota’s official Gazoo Racing, which will also be participating with its own line-up of GR models. Gazoo Racing is the factory-backed team that is going for the win, while Rookie Racing, a private team owned by Chairman Akio Toyoda, races not for points but to test (and break) experimental powertrain concepts in a quest to make ever-better cars. The team is named after Akio Toyoda’s pet dog.
Toyota has yet to announce the specific pilots for each car, but the list includes Morizo (Akio Toyoda’s racing pseudonym), his son Daisuke (Senior Vice President of Woven by Toyota), and Yasuhiro Ogura, president of Ogura Clutch. Together with other seasoned race car drivers, four drivers will take turns to drive each car.
From last year's event
At last year’s event (which ran for 25 hours), Morizo and Ogura drove the GR Corolla while Daisuke drove the GR86. The same arrangement is likely to follow this year.
Kachorn Chiaravanont of the CP Group family, who has previously raced for Toyota Gazoo Racing Thailand, will pilot the Prius carbon-neutral fuel hybrid GR Concept.
Storage and high-speed refueling solutions will also be tested
The endurance race will be used by Toyota not just to test the powertrain’s durability in race conditions, but also to improve hydrogen fuel generation, transport, storage, and high-speed refueling.
The CP Group will also unveil a fuel-cell electric drone.
Over 15 years of experience in automotive, from product planning, to market research, to print and digital media. Garages a 6-cylinder manual RWD but buses to work.
