Gazoo Racing (GR) may sound a bit funny, but it has undoubtedly produced some of the most exciting Toyotas in recent memory.

From the feisty, little GR Yaris to the hard-charging GR Supra two-seater coupe, Toyota’s motorsport division is having a renaissance in almost every high-performance car segment.

And with its latest teaser, Gazoo Racing is about to let loose its magic on the latest Toyota Prius, based on a May 2023 Facebook post advertising its activities for the upcoming 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race.

Aside from photos of the championship-winning GR010 Hybrid race car, which Toyota is campaigning again at Le Mans on June 2023, there is a picture of a Gazoo Racing car peeking out of a paddock door.

The lower bumper resembles the all-new Prius, with other performance goodies like canards, a front wing and a formation of powerful LED driving lights.

The hammerhead hybrid

The latest Prius was launched in Japan on November 2022, sporting what the Japanese carmaker calls a “hammerhead-shark-like” design.

Aside from the smoother body lines, the hybrid packs a lot more punch under its sleek hood, promising substantially better performance than the previous model.

Two Prius variants are available – a standard hybrid (HEV) and a plug-in hybrid (PHEV).

The Prius PHEV gets a 2.0-liter inline-4 gasoline engine connected to an electric motor for a combined output of 223 PS. Toyota claims a 0 to 100 km/h time of just 6.7 seconds and a 50-percent longer range in pure-electric mode.

It also has a solar charging system that can generate enough power for up to 1,250 kilometers a year of driving.

Meanwhile, the HEV variant also gets a 2.0-liter inline-4 hybrid unit, but with 193 PS. It also has an E-Four system, which Toyota said uses a high-output motor to improve performance on slippery surfaces.

The whole car sits on the second generation of the Toyota New Global Architecture platform, variants of which are used on fully electric models like the Toyota bZ3 sedan and the Toyota bZ4X and Lexus RZ crossovers.

The 2023 Prius gets additional reinforcements compared to the old model, along with MacPherson front suspension and double-wishbone rear suspension. 

What do you think Gazoo Racing has done to make the Prius even more exciting?

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