{"id":726833,"date":"2026-06-10T06:41:19","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T06:41:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/726833\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T06:41:19","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T06:41:19","slug":"race-on-sunday-sell-someday-japans-car-giants-turn-to-racing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/726833\/","title":{"rendered":"Race on Sunday, sell someday: Japan\u2019s car giants turn to racing"},"content":{"rendered":"

The old adage of \u2018Race on Sunday, Sell on Monday\u2019 tends to get overused and isn\u2019t quite as relatable as it once was, with most high profile racing series using cars you can\u2019t rock up to your local dealer and buy as their competitors.<\/p>\n

In Japan, that hasn\u2019t seemed to phase the likes of Toyota, Subaru and Mazda much, with all three brands competing in an experimental class of the Super Taikyu Series, all wanting to learn very different things from their entries.<\/p>\n

At the most recent round of the championship, the series headed to Fuji Speedway for a 24 hour race, and while much attention was on the front-running GT3 cars, those campaigned in the ST-Q exhibition class were arguably even more interesting.<\/p>\n

Toyota has been well documented as campaigning the TGRR GR Yaris M Concept <\/a>in the Super Taikyu Series, powered by a mid-mounted turbocharged 2.0-litre four-cylinder engine, rather than the front-mounted 1.6-litre three cylinder as found in the standard GR Yaris.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Toyota vows to save petrol engines<\/p>\n

Toyota chairman Akio Toyoda has never shied away from putting engines on a pedestal, now doubling down on his love of petrol power.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Understood to be the testbed for a new MR2, it\u2019s been out and about for the best part of two years, but at this most recent round more attention was on Toyota\u2019s hydrogen-powered GR Corolla.<\/p>\n

Also in service for the past handful of years, Toyota initially started with the GR Corolla running on hydrogen gas, later liquid hydrogen, and now with a superconducting liquid hydrogen pump, the first racing vehicle to adopt the technology.<\/p>\n

The pump compresses the liquid hydrogen in the fuel tank and transports it to the engine, and had previously been an electric motor but is now a superconducting motor, allowing it to be fitted inside the tank.<\/p>\n

\"\"Toyota’s hydrogen-powered GR Corolla<\/p>\n

This raised the fuel tank capacity from 220 litres to 300 litres, and saw the motor unit mounted lower down, improving the centre of gravity.<\/p>\n

Toyota also changed the GR Corolla\u2019s transmission, swapping out the standard six-speed manual transmission for its newly released eight-speed automatic, allowing the car to lap more consistently.<\/p>\n

For Mazda, the Fuji 24 Hour race was the debut of a new version of Mazda 3, dubbed the Mazda Spirit Racing 3 Future Concept.<\/p>\n

Featuring a diesel engine, the hatchback runs on Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO), a biodiesel substitute to traditional diesel fuel.<\/p>\n

\"\"Mazda Spirit Racing 3 Future Concept<\/p>\n

The car also features an onboard CO2 (carbon dioxide) capture system, with Zeolite used as an absorbent which desorbs when heated, eventually compressed and stored in an onboard tank, rather than spat out of the tailpipe.<\/p>\n

According to Mazda, across the 24-hour race, a total of 804 grams of CO2 was captured, far more than in its previous test where only 84 grams were captured.<\/p>\n

Mazda claims the \u201ccombined effect of the CO2 reduction achieved through HVO and the amount of CO2 captured by the system temporarily exceeded the target recovery level assumed for typical use in Mazda production vehicles\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cBuilding on these results, Mazda is entering a new phase of development focused on further testing and refining the system in racing cars, which operate under high loads and more demanding conditions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Mazda’s carbon capture system<\/p>\n

\u201cSpecifically, Mazda aims to further evaluate the potential for reducing net CO2 emissions in its race car at Round 7 of Super Taikyu Series in November.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finally, Subaru might not be heading down the same path of emissions reduction as Toyota and Mazda, but its Super Taikyu entry should be even more appealing to enthusiasts.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year it revealed the High Performance X Version II (or HiPerfX2), based on its existing WRX-sourced racer, but using the body of the Impreza hatchback.<\/p>\n

Subaru has confirmed it\u2019s got three new manual models on the way, one of which is a production version of the Performance-B STI Concept, which in turn inspired the HiPerfX2.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been more than a decade since Subaru last sold a WRX hatchback, though that drought is likely to be snapped when its upcoming model comes out.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Subaru WRX manual hatchback teased alongside tougher BRZ and WRX sedan<\/p>\n

The Subaru WRX hatchback is one step closer to returning, after the brand teased three new manual models to launch soon<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The old adage of \u2018Race on Sunday, Sell on Monday\u2019 tends to get overused and isn\u2019t quite as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":726834,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,806,805,803,804,85],"class_list":["post-726833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=726833"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726833\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/726834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=726833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=726833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=726833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}