Toyota's effort to expand decarbonization options through the Super Taikyu Series heads into its third year. At the latest season opener, a group of like-minded partners spoke about their new energy projects.
Expanding the options for carbon-neutral fuels
At a round table review of the opening race, GAZOO Racing Company President Tomoya Takahashi and General Manager of the GR Vehicle Development Division’s Advanced Development Department, Yoshinori Yokota, outlined this year’s goals for the #28 GR86 running on carbon-neutral fuel.
General Manager Yokota
Over the course of this year, we want to use racing to work on carmaking and development that will lead to our next model.
Ultimately, we hope the heads of both Subaru and Toyota will approve full model changes for the BRZ and 86.
Like last year, we’re continuing to race with carbon-neutral fuels. At the same time, we want to spend the season working with other OEMs (car manufacturers) on efforts to expand carbon-neutral fuel options.
President Takahashi
Continuing on from last year’s Super Taikyu, we will keep honing our (technology for) carbon neutrality. We also want to use this as an opportunity to further advance our cars.
Although we’ve been talking about expanding carbon-neutral options, we also believe that this offers options for expanding our car (what the next GR86 model should be), and we will work hard on this over the next year of Super Taikyu.
A grueling 24-hour debut race
As for the liquid hydrogen Corolla which unfortunately could not take part in the season opener due to problems, the team is looking to debut at the next race, the Fuji 24 Hours. Speaking about that challenge, President Sato shared the following words.
President Sato
Our race plan will certainly change in going from 5 hours to 24, with the additional night session in particular being a major factor.
Preparing for a 24-hour race as the debut outing will no doubt increase the workload.
Looking back, our first race using gaseous hydrogen was also a 24-hour event. We are ready for the technical preparation required to get us through 24 hours.
Morizo saw it as fateful, and we’ll be going into these 24 hours with the same mindset. Rather than add new technical elements, we want to approach the race by increasing our contingency measures for dealing with the unexpected.
We’ll try to be prepared for whatever the race will throw at us.
This season, the battle against carbon is once again unfolding on the racetrack.