Photo: Toyota
There is nothing more refreshing than a completely nuts car from an absolutely mundane manufacturer. It's like that moment when the group's dullest person makes a cracking joke, and everyone is on the floor laughing because nobody expected it.
The 600 horsepower C-HR R-Tuned was certainly one of those moments. The tiny crossover is likely to sell mostly with small-displacement gasoline engines and hybrid units under its hood, and spend most of its days zipping through suburbs or busy cities. Which is what makes this race car conversion all the more striking.
It's not like Dan Gardner Spec, the company asked to perform the modifications, held anything back. The aero elements are as unforgiving as the main protagonist in a revenge movie while that rear wing looks like it could find a new purpose searching for extraterrestrial intelligence once its driving days were over.
The Japanese company couldn't have pulled it off if it weren't for this new switch in the way it goes about the design of its new models. Toyota is making sexy cars again, and the C-HR is one of the best examples.
But it's not really about the looks. The C-HR R-Tuned, with its 600 hp 2.4-liter completely modified 2AZ-FE engine, is said to lap the Willow Springs track in just 1:25.22, which is 0.22 seconds slower than a Chevrolet Corvette Z06 and 0.2 seconds quicker than a Lamborghini Aventador LP750-4 SV.
With that in mind, it's easy to imagine why its creator, Dan Gardner, would love to see the C-HR have a go at the Nurburgring as well. “We wanted to make a supercar killer – the whole point is that it doesn’t make sense,” he told Autocar, providing us with what has got to be one of the best car descriptions we've heard lately.
"Personally, it would be a dream to take it to the Nordschleife," Gardner says, acknowledging at the same time that Toyota has no intention of doing that at the moment. "I have no doubt it could set the front-wheel-drive record there,” he concludes, and given the info we have at the moment, we tend to agree with him.
Dan gives a lot of credit to the crossover's original chassis, praising the TNGA (Toyota's modular platform) for its rigidity. That must have made his company's job a lot easier, focusing on the engine, brakes, and aero while performing minimal work on the suspension.
Will we ever see the C-HR R-Tuned on the 'Ring? If Gardner lobbies his idea enough with Toyota's top brass, we don't see why not. If the Japanese want the world to know how great their new crossover is, we can think of no better and more efficient way to do it. Not to mention it would make for a very nice video.
It's not like Dan Gardner Spec, the company asked to perform the modifications, held anything back. The aero elements are as unforgiving as the main protagonist in a revenge movie while that rear wing looks like it could find a new purpose searching for extraterrestrial intelligence once its driving days were over.
The Japanese company couldn't have pulled it off if it weren't for this new switch in the way it goes about the design of its new models. Toyota is making sexy cars again, and the C-HR is one of the best examples.
But it's not really about the looks. The C-HR R-Tuned, with its 600 hp 2.4-liter completely modified 2AZ-FE engine, is said to lap the Willow Springs track in just 1:25.22, which is 0.22 seconds slower than a Chevrolet Corvette Z06 and 0.2 seconds quicker than a Lamborghini Aventador LP750-4 SV.
With that in mind, it's easy to imagine why its creator, Dan Gardner, would love to see the C-HR have a go at the Nurburgring as well. “We wanted to make a supercar killer – the whole point is that it doesn’t make sense,” he told Autocar, providing us with what has got to be one of the best car descriptions we've heard lately.
"Personally, it would be a dream to take it to the Nordschleife," Gardner says, acknowledging at the same time that Toyota has no intention of doing that at the moment. "I have no doubt it could set the front-wheel-drive record there,” he concludes, and given the info we have at the moment, we tend to agree with him.
Dan gives a lot of credit to the crossover's original chassis, praising the TNGA (Toyota's modular platform) for its rigidity. That must have made his company's job a lot easier, focusing on the engine, brakes, and aero while performing minimal work on the suspension.
Will we ever see the C-HR R-Tuned on the 'Ring? If Gardner lobbies his idea enough with Toyota's top brass, we don't see why not. If the Japanese want the world to know how great their new crossover is, we can think of no better and more efficient way to do it. Not to mention it would make for a very nice video.
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