2013 24 Hours of Le Mans : Toyota Preview

  • Jun 12, 2013
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The 2013 TS030 is the biggest rival for Audi in this year's race. Let us find out what the boffins at Toyota have done to end Audi's domination at LeMans

2013 Toyota TS030 in action

The boffins from the land of the rising sun have braced themselves for a grand scuffle to end the German domination in France. For this year's 24 hours of Le Mans Toyota would be fielding its 2013 TS030 in an attempt to end Audi’s three-year supremacy at one of the most legendary races in the world. The chassis employed on the new car has been developed from the ground-up with lessons learnt in 2012. Toyota will again utilise the Toyota Hybrid System (THS-R) – Racing powertrain, which was developed specially for its Le Mans programme in 2012 by its Motor Sport division. 

The 3.4 litre naturally aspirated V-8 mill produces 537PS of power but the engineers have mated it cleverly to a super capacitor-based hybrid system which pumps out an additional 304PS. By combining both the motors, the 2013 TS030 boasts an impressive total power out put of 841.5PS. In terms of power output Engineers had to adopt to the new regulations for the 2014 season major being that petrol fuelled cars would get only 4.95 litres/lap and fuel tank capacity being shrunken by 12 per cent. 

Although Toyota has a larger tank capacity than Audi, it will be challenging for them to match the efficiency of their diesel powered rivals. The major criteria for the cars engineers will be to extract maximum efficiency from the motor without compromising on performance and reliability. Aerodynamics has always been vital at Le Mans and for this purpose the Japanese automobile giant has completely revised the aerodynamic package of their 2013 season competitor car.

Toyota has also updated the monocoque for better performance to counter the new regulation which increases the minimum weight for manufacturer LMP1 cars by 15kg. Apart from all the development and improvements they have made for this season, Toyota would be wishing that lady luck smiles on them, since one of their cars was leading the race over Audi before trouble in pits and an eventual engine failure cut shot their challenge.

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