For people who do not believe that electric vehicles can compete in motorsport with the same kind of intensity and deliver the same range of performance as their gas-driven counterparts, the following bit of news should come as more than just a bit of a surprise. The TMG EV P001 sports car from Toyota has just broken the lap record for EVs at the famed German Nürburgring Nordschleife circuit. The TMG EV went around the 20.8km lap in 7:47.794 shaving off more than 70 seconds off the 9:01.338 record previously held by the Peugeot EX1.
EVs have long been dissed by gas-guzzling sportsters for not being able to deliver on the tarmac with the same thump. But the fact that the TMG EV P001 did a 7.47 on the 20.8m track on which the fastest lap has been done by a gas-run Porsche 956 @ 6:25.91 and that too in 1983, Toyota’s not-so-far-behind sprint is heartwarming to say the least.
The TMG EV is as sporty a car as they come with a Radical Sportscars chassis juiced by two electric motors that produce a max combined output of 800Nm torque. Fitted with road-legal tires, the electric racer can get up to a max speed of 260km/h which must have helped its clear-weather record-breaking performance although the temperature of the track on the day the feat was achieved was lower in comparison to what actual race day stats for the tarmac are.
The record attempt, of course, also means that engineers toiling behind the scenes at Toyota Motorsport GmbH are going in the right direction and the numbers certainly should give all their collective egos a huge boost. The EV P001’s record means that we can see electrified vehicles make a good showing in regular racing leagues if they can manage to make batteries that can last the whole duration of the race without needing to make pit stops for refills. If that materializes, it will revolutionize motorsports as well as the way we think about supercars and performance-based automotives.
Via: Car Advice
