Toyota will make its official racing come-back in 2012, with an hybrid version of the LMP1 competing at the next 24 hours of Le Mans. At the moment, the drawing pictured above is all there is about the exterior design of the car. The chassis will be based on a brand new project that is going to be developed at the German motorsport division of the Japanese manufacturer, in Cologne, whereas the hybrid engine - as well as the whole mechanical apparatus - will be assembled in Japan. The last Toyota model to make an official appearance at the legendary French endurance event was the GT-One, which raced there in 1998 and 1999 in both GT1 and LM GTP categories. In that period a road-legal version of the GT-One was also built, but it never went on sale as the racing GT-One from which it derived never managed to achieve the success on the track that Toyota expected.

In the official press-release announcing this long-awaited comeback there is no mention of a possible future shifting of LMP1 technology to road-legal models, but it’s fair to say that this decision will influence the whole next generation of sports cars from the Japanese carmaker. The upcoming FT-86 is somewhat anticipating Toyota’s return in the sports cars market, but also a new version of the ‘iconic’ Supra is currently in the works.

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