The Toyota GR Super Sport appeared at the 2020 Le Mans
Reports from Japan have emerged that Toyota’s ground-breaking GR Super Sport hypercar has been cancelled. While the Japanese giant’s Le Mans Hypercar (LMH) program is unaffected, it’s believed plans for a road-going version of the car that competes at La Sarthe have been paused or cancelled altogether following a fiery crash in testing.
Toyota carried on development of the GR Super Sport road car, even bringing a prototype to the 2020 Le Mans 24-hours, which Alex Wurz demonstrated on circuit. The company also released a video in 2019 showing Toyota president Akio Toyoda driving an early prototype at Fuji Speedway. This was meant to be the halo model for the brand’s Gazoo Racing line-up of road cars that currently includes the GR Supra, GR Yaris and GR 86.
Toyota GR Super Sport was meant to become a halo model for the Japanese brand
While the reports claim the program has been binned following a crash at Fuji Speedway that destroyed a prototype, there’s been no confirmation from Toyota itself. Prototypes are often damaged during testing and generally prove more of a setback than a dead-end.
Certainly Toyota has put extensive work into the GR Super Sport project, developing a road-legal version of the 2.4-litre twin-turbo V6 hybrid powertrain from the race car and designing and building a bespoke chassis and body.
Obviously a hypercar that would likely be priced at the very top end of the performance car market, potentially similar or even above the current range-topping Ferrari SF90 Stradale, Aston Martin Valhalla and Lamborghini Aventador would be new territory for Toyota.
Given the likely very high price and limited market for such a car, as well as the subsequent change of LMH rules which no longer the road car version, Toyota is using the crash as an excuse to cut a program that likely always struggled to make financial sense.
Until there’s official word from Toyota the fate of the GR Super Sport appears uncertain.
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