Does A 4th Place Le Mans Finish By A Toyota Powered Entry Prove They Can Run With The Big Boys?

Toyota Racing came to the 24 Heures du Mans for its first World Endurance Championship race with two TS030 hybrid LMP1 prototypes. They had a good qualifying effort that saw the No. 8 car of Anthony Davidson, Stephane Sarrazin and Sebastien Buemi in third place on the 56-car grid, with the No. 7 car of Alex Wurz, Nicolas Lapierre and Kazuki Nakajima earning fifth place for the start.

It was a good way to begin the 24-hour race and, throughout the opening hours the two Toyota hybrid prototypes were able to use the KERS technology that recovers energy under braking, stores it in super capacitors and then releases under acceleration - from any speed - to gain a significant power boost, keeping the duo towards the front of the field.

While the TS030 hybrid wasn't able to make the finish line at 3PM on Sunday afternoon, the TMG-supplied engine in the Rebellion Racing Lola/Toyota finished as "best of the rest" in fourth position.

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chewy - 6/22/2012 2:56:50 PM

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Toyota powered is the keyword there but not with the same engine as in the factory Toyota.

monster - 6/22/2012 3:40:55 PM

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The way I read it is the engine is supplied by Toyota but the chassis is not.

chewy - 6/22/2012 4:04:04 PM

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Correct, it's a pretty standard Lola coupe chassis.

Fijian - 6/22/2012 4:26:16 PM

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Of the two engines supplied one blew up.Not very reliable.

Willis - 6/22/2012 4:49:40 PM

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Shhhh, Consumer Reports is listening.

USNA1999 - 6/22/2012 5:54:51 PM

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TOYOTA has extremely deep pockets which in racing, that means winning! They had a good outing in the 24 hrs of LE MANS, not sure what happenen in F1 though.

ThierryHenry14 - 6/24/2012 10:46:57 AM

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extremely deep pockets doesn't necessarily mean winning... Hence, Toyota in F1... And Toyota had a quite poor outing at Le Mans. Not finishing any factory team is not a good outing...

MercedesSL - 6/24/2012 11:08:09 AM

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The whole Toyota lemans project was only 9 months old, and it was there cars first race. Considering they were able to match the pace of the Audis, and were able to take the lead around the 5th or 6th hour shows what they are/were capable of. Look out next year.

ThierryHenry14 - 6/26/2012 11:23:37 AM

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MercedesSL... At the end of the day, what happened on the 1st hr - 23rd hr doesnt really matter. All that matters is that at the end of the 24th hr, Audi swept the podium. And I'm not sure if you know, but usually, it doesn't matter how long you have to prepare, if you don't win, it means you don't win. There's not a separate trophy for giving it a good effort...

ThierryHenry14 - 6/26/2012 11:32:27 AM

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oh, and by the way, I'm not saying that they have to win right away, I'm just saying that its going to take more than a 4th place finish by a Toyota sourced car to "prove that they can run with the big boys." Its way too early to say how they will do, given they will stay in Le Mans long enough to taste success... Their F1 campaign was a total failure...

carguy68 - 6/22/2012 6:12:27 PM

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NO!

lexworld - 6/22/2012 8:19:47 PM

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...Toyota is no doubt one of the Big Boys Agent009. Let me know when Hyundai is even close to thinking about making a Halo Car. If you as a manufacturer can bring a serious Exotic to the fore front in the market place, such as the Lexus LFA, you are definately a Big Boy!

ThierryHenry14 - 6/24/2012 10:48:28 AM

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But it did, so no point in speculating what would have happened or could have happened, because it didn't happened. What happened was Audi won, 1, 2, 3... Simple!

ThierryHenry14 - 6/26/2012 11:18:58 AM

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BD, since you are not a race fan, let me remind you...

Le Mans 2011 - 2 Ferraris took out 2 R18 TDI, one remaining Audi chased by 4 Pugs... Audi Won... Whats your point about the Ferrari taking out the Toyota. Audi experienced the same thing and won previously, so no reason Toyota couldn't have won. Except they were dumb in taking out the Deltawing with their second car.

In racing, its not about in a 24 hour race, its about the execution over the entire 24hr race. So bottom line, Toyota Factory effort, failed... Toyota as a supplier, its not success for Toyota only...

lexworld - 6/23/2012 1:10:38 PM

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..Wow! Where are the Haters at?

ThierryHenry14 - 6/24/2012 10:49:35 AM

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A 4th Place finish means they didn't win. What to prove anything, prove that you can win at any type of racing...