Toyota Motorsport‘s electric TMG EV P002 made a successful start to testing in preparation for next month’s Pikes Peak International Hill Climb.
Toyota took the car to Carolina Motorsports Park to test a range of modifications to the car, driven by multiple Pikes Peak winner Rod Millen, who will pilot the TMG EV P002 in an attempt to repeat Toyota’s 2012 success.
“The balance was very good and the car behaved predictably at all times,” said Millen. “This race car is unique and I really appreciated the seat time in the car. This gave me the chance to learn about the advanced electric powertrain capabilities and I could experience how the car changes over a race distance. Even when the tyres were past their best at the end the car was still fast and controllable. Now I am looking forward to driving an electric race car at Pikes Peak for the first time.”
Two days of testing initially focussed on driver comfort and systems checks, before moving on to set-up evaluation and work on the aerodynamics, powertrain and cooling system. The team have also upgraded the car to 400kW of power and 1200Nm of torque and significantly reduced the weight, allowing better performance overall.
“I am encouraged with the reliability and performance shown so far,” said TRD USA Vice President of Chassis Operations, Steve Wickham. “Rod is happy with the car and I am looking forward to see how we stack up on the Mountain compared to last year and more importantly the strong EV competition. The multinational team from TRD and TMG are working together well which is critical for me as team manager especially as the Mountain schedule is so mentally and physically demanding on all of us. All of the many individual improvements in downforce, braking and powertrain we have made to the car seem to working well together. The team is ready to step up to the challenge; we all badly want to retain our title in the EV class.”
