We've all heard a lot about the Toyota Prius lately and its constantly growing family. While Toyota Marin certainly loves the innovative hybrid lineup and applauds Toyota on its pioneering achievements, we're ready to switch it up and talk about a different piece of eco-friendly news.

Not only will our favorite automaker be returning to the famous Le Mans race this year but...drumroll please...it will be bringing a pair of hybrid race cars! This marks the first time a gas-electric model has been used in the FIA World Endurance Championship. While that is thrilling in and of itself, wait until you hear about the vehicle Toyota has concocted.

Dubbed the TS030 HYBRID, the Toyota racer grabs power from a 3.4L V8 married to a race-ready hybrid system. This, however, is no ordinary energy-saving electric motor. In order to ensure the TS030 achieves maximum performance, engineers have designed it with capacitors - not batteries - to hold the juice. In addition, the revolutionary hybrid race car sports a brand-new carbon fibre chassis that has already undergone a significant amount of testing.

Yoshiaki Kinoshita, Toyota Racing Team President, explains, "Our target this year is to show the performance level of our car and in particular the THS-R powertrain."¹

A first-ever hybrid step into the performance car world? We'd expect nothing less from the innovative hybrid king. If you'd like to learn a bit more about the TS030 HYBRID - or any other new Toyota model for that matter - feel free to talk to Toyota Marin in person at 445 Francisco Blvd East San Rafael, CA 94901.

Source: ¹http://autos.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Autos/20120127/autos_vaughan_column_toyota_hybrid_120127/?s_name=Autos#ixzz1ldgCFxSQ