#Toyota to tackle Mulsanne Straight with #hybrid power

Ok, ok... I'm super late with this post because the news has been out for over a week. I know, because I've been busy posting it elsewhere. But, better late than never I say!

So Toyota Motorsport GmbH, based in Cologne, announced not so long ago that they plan to enter this year's FIA World Endurance Championships. Long story short, the new series is the first endurance series is given a world championship status. Not only is that awesome, because Toyota's earlier try was with the GT-One, a simply awesome looking beast, but they plan to do it now with hybrid power.

We all know that Toyota is the daddy of full hybrid cars, reaching sales of 400,000 in Europe just last week They came out with it first in 1997 and continued to dominate the automotive industry with clean, green, reliable and actually quite relaxing-to-drive cars - I know, I had a 3rd generation Prius for three weeks and it was the most relaxing three weeks of driving I've ever had.

Now they plan to take on the famous Le Mans, and other endurance races with their new TS030 HYBRID racer. The team, by the way, is named Toyota Hybrid Racing. The TS030 was first unveiled last week at the Paul Ricard circuit in France during the first official test. And the verdict from most is that it sounds amazing.

I'm still waiting for my first chance to see that car do its thing, but at least Toyota has provided some awesome videos to offer a taste.



The big news today is that although Toyota intended to use the 2012 WEC season as a trial, they have had to change their strategy a bit following some changes with the organisers. They haven't given much away on that front, but here's what we do know. There will be two TS030 HYBRID competitors for this year's Le Mans race and they will be making their debut on the WEC circuit at the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps.

Guess who's going to be right in the midst covering all the action? Yup, you guessed right! Things are looking good for this year, don't you think?

Follow the team on Twitter here.