A Race-Bound Toyota C-HR

Published on January 18, 2016 in Racing by Frédérick Boucher-Gaulin

I’m willing to bet you never heard of Gazoo Racing; apart from the fact that the name might remind you of a funny sounding musical instrument, the company is relatively unknown.

And yet, Gazoo Racing is a big name in the industry: it regroups pretty much every racing team fielded by Toyota and Lexus, including the LFAs in the 24H of Nurburgring, the Le Mans prototypes, the rally Yaris and the Pikes Peak-bound RAV4.

The most recent vehicle to be added to this impressive roster isn’t a sports car… in fact, it isn’t even a car: it’s the Toyota C-HR sub-compact SUV.

This newcomer will have big responsibilities. Not only will it race on tarmac (where its raised ride height and higher centre of gravity will play against it), but it will also race in one of the most difficult events of the automotive racing calendar: the 24H of Nurburgring.

We don’t know what is under the C-HR’s hood yet, but we can see from the above picture that it will have light wheels, a few aerodynamic tweaks (like the huge rear wing) and a lowered suspension.

Under its racecar guise however, the little SUV gives us a very good indication of what the production version will look like.

If you are interested, the 24H of Nurburgring starts on May 26, 2016.