At Le Mans this year RET reporter Andrew Noble witnessed the revealing of various new hydrogen race projects. Le Mans is committed to hydrogen-fuelled Prototypes in the not too distant future, prompting those developing the technology for competition to use this year’s centennial event to showcase their technology.
On the Friday, possibly one of the biggest proponents of hydrogen technologies for vehicles, Toyota, lifted the covers on its future race concept, writes Noble. There has been no hiding that Toyota as a group sees a significant future in hydrogen as a propulsion fuel, exploring both fuel cell and combustion avenues in both road and race vehicles. It came as little surprise then to see a concept for a Prototype car, the Toyota GR H2 Racing Concept, wearing the Gazoo Racing branding sat in the Village H2 at this year’s 24 Hour event.
Little technical information was released regarding the vehicle, other than it would comprise a hydrogen engine supplemented with a hybrid system. This combined powertrain solution makes sense given the vast experience that Toyota has with running LMP Hybrid cars, to great success in recent years.
True, for those the combustible fuel has been different, but Toyota has shown with its GR Yaris H2 and its hydrogen-powered Corolla Sport projects that it is capable of getting a hydrogen burning ICE onto a competitive stage. Toyota Chairman Akio Toyoda affirmed the company’s commitment to finding carbon neutral alternatives within motorsport, this concept being another step on that journey.
Motorsport has traditionally been a testing arena for manufacturers to develop technologies that would subsequently filter down to road going vehicles; is it likely that we will see a similar approach over the coming years with hydrogen combustion engines?
With the various reveals during this year’s 24 Hour race event there is evidence that some very large companies are willing to devote significant engineering resource into this area. That can only be a good thing for those fans that want to keep hearing the soundtrack they have come to expect from their motorsport vehicles.