Report in todays (23 Sept) Autosport and repeated in many web sites.
Japanese manufacturer Toyota will return to Le Mans in 2011, 12 years after their last involvement in the iconic 24-hour race.
The company has reached a deal that will see them supply engines to the Rebellion LMP1 prototype squad at next year’s race. The powerplant is a 3.4L V8, a variant of the Lexus-badged V8 currently running in the Japanese Super GT championship.
Though Rebellion are yet to confirm the deal it has been acknowledged by Toyota Motorsport's general manager, Hiromi Hayashi, who revealed that the British squad have already taken delivery of the engines.
Hayashi further stressed that the deal merely a commercial tie-up and not a prelude to a full-scale factory return from Toyota, who recently pulled the plug on their largely unsuccessful multi-million dollar Formula One programme.
The Rebellion team has run with Judd engines this year, but could begin testing with a Toyota unit as soon as next month.
Nissan are also returning to prototypes next year with an LMP2 customer engine. The 4.5 litre normally aspirated V8 is developed from the same family of engines as the 3.4 litre Super GT engine. British engine builder Zytek, which is not building an engine to the 2011 LMP2 rules will be responsible for for track support and engine rebuilds.
Login
Register
FAQ
Search
