New Toyota Canopy Patent Could Be Related to GR Super Sport Hypercar
Toyota has filed patent applications with the United States Patent and Trademark Office for canopy-style doors that open like a race car or fighter jet. Yes, Toyota, the brand whose sportiest offering is the $60,000 Supra, looks to be working on a car with something even more exotic than gullwing doors.
And we’re not surprised. A little over two years ago, Toyota confirmed it was building a next-generation GR Super Sport hypercar in preparation for the post-LMP1 World Endurance Championship, showing it off in concept form at the Tokyo Auto Salon.
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About a year later, the automaker teased the car with a track video of Toyota CEO and President Akio Toyoda himself behind the wheel. Needless to say, the GR Super Sport is currently under development, and while Toyota never said anything about motorsport-style canopy doors, there’s no better candidate for them than the hypercar — not to mention that the patent drawings even resemble the concept.
The patent was discovered by the GR86.org community, and it’s actually not one but two patents. The first is for the latches on the left and right side of the car, and they describe how they will unlock the doors. The second patent outlines the side sills and how they could allow ingress and egress.
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The Toyota GR Super Sport is being developed in preparation for the new Le Mans hypercar regulations, which require competing vehicles to be based on road cars. In the first season, manufacturers will need to have built at least 25 of those road cars, and 100 in the second season.
There are no official specs yet, but the GR Super Sport concept boasted a hybrid system comprised of a mid-engine, 2.4-liter twin-turbo V6 driving power to the rear wheels and an electric motor driving the front axle — all working together to make 986 horsepower.
We have no way to tell what the final production car will actually have under the hood, but something in the vicinity of 1000 horsepower doesn’t seem far fetch. After all, the car must be the basis for a Le Mans winner, and because of racing restrictions that pursue parity, production models tend to be even more powerful than their racing counterparts.
Kurt Verlin was born in France and lives in the United States. Throughout his life he was always told French was the language of romance, but it was English he fell in love with. He likes cats, music, cars, 30 Rock, Formula 1, and pretending to be a race car driver in simulators; but most of all, he just likes to write about it all. See more articles by Kurt.