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This Is the World’s Fastest Toyota Prius

The Toyota Prius was never associated with high speed, tremendous acceleration and hard cornering. No, this hybrid arrived in 1997 to use two times less gasoline than the other cars on the market.
Toyota Prius GT300 Racecar 1 photo
Photo: screenshot from Youtube
And it did, especially after the second generation got launched with its iconic liftback shape which also happens to be very aerodynamic. From this point, the Prius became part of a semantic field also containing “green”, “eco-friendly”, “hypermileage” and sometimes “hipster”.

But then Toyota decided to prove its hybrid point in racing too, so back in 2012 the Prius GT300 debuted in the Japanese Super GT series appearing to be possessed by the speed demons.

Since it was built to compete against GT300 entrants like the BMW Z4, McLaren MP4, Audi R8, Porsche 911 and Lamborghini Gallardos, Frankenstein’s Prius is far away from what the street car used to be.

It still retains the Prius styling, with the liftback body shape, head and taillights, but it comes with a wide body kit, huge wing, dry carbon front splitter, rear diffuser and the whole body has been lowered so that wheels are now standing right bellow the side windows. Not to mention the fact that it sits on an improved chassis and has a rollcage fitted stripped-out interior with all the racing bits in their place.

It’s hybrid soul remained though it’s a bit altered. Opening up the hood you’ll find nothing because the engine is now where the back seats should have been. And it’s not the 1.8-liter Atkinson one but a larger 3.4-liter V8 mounted to a sequential manual gearbox and some electric motors.

The videos bellow will better demonstrate how fast this Prius is round the track, as the 2014 GT300 seasons is coming and the team started testing and fine tuning the racecar. So far it took some podium finishes but other times just finishing the race was the whole achievement. You see, trying to make a racecar out of what it was meant to consume as less fuel as possible is a pretty hard challenge, so it’s natural for the car to have some flaws.

However, the teams have improved the package over from last year and let’s hope they’ll secure victories this year.

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