Monday 6th December 2010
Toyota Back In Motorsport With Le Mans Engine
Partnership with Rebellion Racing marks ToMoCo's return to La Sarthe
The 2010 Lola-Rebellion
Toyota has confirmed that it will be making a return to Le Mans next year as an official engine supplier to the Swiss LMP1 team Rebellion racing.
The project will be the first time that Toyota has dipped its official toe back in the waters of motorsport since it withdrew from F1 at the end of 2009.
The first Toyota-powered prototype of the Lola coupe had a shakedown at Snetterton in October and has since been run in the sunnier climes of Spain and Portugal.
"This agreement is the cornerstone of Rebellion's challenge for the forthcoming season," said Rebellion team principal Alexandre Pesci. "Toyota is an impressive and remarkable industrial giant, we are proud to have been selected by Toyota Motorsport as their partner in this project."
Toyota Motorsport president Yoshiaki Kinoshita added: "Toyota Motorsport has recent experience of engine supply partnerships from our Formula 1 days, so we are drawing on that to deliver a reliable and competitive engine."
It is very much a tentative step at the moment, but Toyota's partnership with Rebellion could well end up being the first move in a full-blown return to sports car racing.
Toyota certainly has unfinished business at Le Mans - its last attempt ended with a crushingly close-but-no-cigar 2nd place with the GT-One back in 1999.
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the fury
Original Poster
556 posts
111 months
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Presumably as they mention drawing on their F1 experience it'll be petrol rather than the more fashionable diesel powered? Hope so!
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Munter
23,700 posts
110 months
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Do LMP1 engines have to be based on anything from the road? I don't believe they would have dropped the F1 lump in so I'm just wondering where it's from.
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BanjoMaster
24 posts
39 months
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Good news!
Suspect either GT500-based V8 or LFA-style V10?
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carse
63 posts
86 months
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Don't think it'll be a V10. New regs cap cylinder count at a max of 8 I think?
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soad
15,890 posts
45 months
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BanjoMaster said: Good news! I reckon so too - makes it more exciting, which is no bad thing
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The Leaper
1,715 posts
75 months
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In my view the Toyota GT-1 was probably the best car never to have won Le Mans in recent times, and the 1999 race was also one of the best too. Welcome back, Toyota Motorsport!
R.
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Nick M
3,137 posts
92 months
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The Leaper said: In my view the Toyota GT-1 was probably the best car never to have won Le Mans in recent times, and the 1999 race was also one of the best too. Welcome back, Toyota Motorsport! +1 I was always rooting for Martin Brundle to win again in the Toyota but sadly events always seemed to conspire against him. [trivia] 1999 was also, if my memory serves me correctly, the first year that the winning car had completed the distance without the need to change brake discs / pads. [/trivia] I hope this is the prelude to a proper return to Le Mans for Toyota. Perhaps with the emphasis being placed on hybrids in the LMP1 class they might be tempted back to compete against Audi and Peugeot in 2012.
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Dangermouse78
119 posts
42 months
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Would be interesting to see, purely for advertisment purposes... drop the Toyota V10 F1 engine into the Lola LMP1 & see what it'll do....
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leon9191
673 posts
62 months
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Ah man Snetterton is just 2mins from my work, would have loved to see some testing laps over the back fence. 
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chevronb37
5,137 posts
55 months
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Awesome news - this is good for LMP racing and good for motorsport in Europe to have Toyota back involved. The GT-One was an awesome car, though I consider the GT1 nomenclature a little tenuous. The ICLMC should be a good championship for manufacturers, and exactly what sportscar racing has needed for a few years.
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jp-speed-triple
1,504 posts
56 months
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eastlmark
976 posts
76 months
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good to hear Rebellion still carrying on.
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GingerWizard
4,587 posts
67 months
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Oh the GT-1 what a car.....  It was a stunning car, a brilliant concept and immortilised by its 2nd place finish.... I have some clippings my mate bought over from HK some where with technical info, but its all in manderin, from what i remember the pictures spoke a thousand words....... I'll see if i can dig them up, scan, post. Gwiz
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ukaskew
550 posts
90 months
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On the F1 point, would an F1 engine survive being used for that long constantly without any major servicing, even de-tuned with a big drop in RPM?
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Racefan_uk
2,928 posts
125 months
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ukaskew said: On the F1 point, would an F1 engine survive being used for that long constantly without any major servicing, even de-tuned with a big drop in RPM? The Judd sportscar engine is (I think, I stand to be corrected by those a lot more knowledgable!) based around previous F1 technology, just not as advanced as the last round of V10s were. That said, an ex F1 V10 would make a stonking LM qualifying engine, wouldn't it? 
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GingerWizard
4,587 posts
67 months
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ukaskew said: On the F1 point, would an F1 engine survive being used for that long constantly without any major servicing, even de-tuned with a big drop in RPM? current F1 engines run for 10hrs+ in ideal conditions with the restrictions this year. so maybe? someone much clevererer then me would know; but it seems reasonable.
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davepoth
19,906 posts
68 months
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A slight drop in peak revs would make it last much longer I think.
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Mark-C
1,712 posts
74 months
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Loved the GT-One and the Lola Coupe has hints of it in it's outline. I really hope this is Toyota having a looke&see ahead of something more saerious ...
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rlw
2,176 posts
106 months
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ukaskew said: On the F1 point, would an F1 engine survive being used for that long constantly without any major servicing, even de-tuned with a big drop in RPM? The Cosworth DFL was none too shabby eventually, as I recall, and even the DFV did pretty well.
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300KPH
167 posts
47 months
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I had always wondered about the changing of discs/pads. I recall watching some of the BPR endurance races on Eurosport back in the mid ninties and I remember cars like the F40 doing disc changes etc during these shorter races.
To think they can now run for 24hrs without changing discs/pads and with those chicanes on the back straight, thats truly epic in my opinion. What ever about the discs I thought they woulda gone through a couple of sets of pads.
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