Ferrari hybrids and other green supercars are always big news. Combining efficiency and power is just the kind of balancing act you can charge $300,000 for. But what if you went the other way; what if you turned the greenest car there ever was into a supercar?
Believe it or not, this isn't really a new idea. After the rendering artists began turning everything into a mid-engined sports car, quite a few people tried to spice up the Prius. There's really no other reason for this other than it being such an iconic shape.
But, as per usual, we focus on the work of TheSketchMonkey today, mainly because he turned the crazy idea into a video. Can you even comprehend the viral nature of a YouTube clip that mentions Toyota and supercars in the title? I mean, there's that guy who put a supercharged SRT8 in the Prius, but still.
While people only thing of Tesla as being a green automaker, Toyota is the company that took hybrids mainstream. The Prius is almost synonymous with the gasoline-electric mixture. It's like what Kleenex is to tissues or Zamboni to ice-resurfacing.
Obviously, the Prius looks nothing like a supercar. The artist makes numerous alterations to the design, including the 2-door body conversion, bigger wheels, a lower roof, and more aero. But we feel like the finished product isn't quite there. It's more like the aero Japanese compacts of the 1990s.
That's why we took the liberty of adding another super-Prius rendering at the bottom of our article. Artist Silverclusdsam made the Toyota hybrid lower, wider, and more aggressive.
On the other hand, TheSketchMonkey's car keeps some of the Kammback look of the Prius and resembles a sports car.
Let's not forget that the Toyota GR HV concept from a few years back was a hybrid. Specs weren't made available, but the company mentioned it would get a performance-oriented set-up with technology taken from the TS050 racer.
The 2009 FT-HS concept also had a 3.5-liter hybrid drive with 400 hp. Something tells us they'd like to put a Prius engine in the 86 just to see the world burn.
Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida. Full profile
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