Toyota: Hydrogen engine GR racer concept unveiled at Le Mans
Parked just off the paddock at Le Mans, away from the commemorative liveries and history reels, is a car that might just help save the future of petrol hedonism – the sort that makes your hair stand up and your ears ring.
Only, this one runs on hydrogen.
It’s called the GR LH₂ Racing Concept, and it comes from the same skunkworks that builds Toyota’s World Endurance Championship contenders: Gazoo Racing.
Beneath its bodywork sits a hydrogen combustion engine, backed up by a hybrid system, and fuelled by the same liquid hydrogen that powers rockets, cryogenically stored at an equally cosmic -253°C.
If you’ve grown up around racing, you’ll be pleased to know that propulsion is handled in the old school way – burned in cylinders in the order of suck, squeeze, bang and blow.
The best bit being that it’s an eco friendly race car, emitting precisely zero CO2. All very polar bear friendly.
Gazoo have built it on the same, though slightly bigger, carbon tub as the GR010 Hybrid that’s currently chasing Ferraris through the WEC.
But the petrol-electric V6 has been ditched. In its place: something colder, cleaner – something green, but mechanical and analogue.
Hydrocarbons, without the carbon.
From Corolla to prototype
Toyota’s been building towards this for a while. Back in 2021, it started racing a hydrogen-powered GR Corolla in Japan’s Super Taikyu series.
First with compressed hydrogen, then, from 2023, with liquid. That car’s still running – gathering data on fuelling, combustion timing, durability, even piston coatings to handle some of hydrogen’s more tricky properties.
They’ve demoed a hydrogen GR Yaris on rally stages, and ran a hydrogen Corolla around Le Mans. Even sent one up the Goodwood hill with Rowan Atkinson behind the wheel (that’s Baldrick or Mr Bean depending on how old you are).
But the GR LH₂ is a step up. No longer a modified road car – this is a purpose-built prototype, sharing its chassis with Toyota’s current Le Mans challenger and built to show how hydrogen combustion could work when the rulebook finally allows it.
Which is the thing. It can’t officially race… yet.
Why now?
Good news on that front though, because the rules are finally catching up. The ACO (Le Mans’ governing body) plans to introduce a proper hydrogen class at the race by 2028 – open to both fuel cells and combustion.
The FIA has already signed off the critical safety regs: tank construction, refuelling standards, crash protocols. Boring stuff.
But it’s happening. Slowly. And Toyota, as usual, has decided not to wait around.
This may just be the salvation that petrol heads the world over are crying out for. As the world becomes more clinical and safe and environmental rules take over – hydrogen combustion still offers us that primal passion and theatre and drama.
What’s to love here is that Toyota has taken a green fuel – hydrogen – and used it to create something preposterous and hell raising. They’ve brought the passion back.
Fuel cell or combustion? Yes.
Outside of the GR LH2, Toyota’s taking what it calls a multi pathway approach. It already builds the fuel-cell production car Mirai, it’s co-developing the next-gen fuel cell stack with BMW.
But combustion still has a role – especially in motorsport, where weight, packaging, soul, character, theatre and fast pit stops still count for something.
Hydrogen combustion lets Toyota apply what it already knows about engines, cooling, control systems, and drivetrains. It’s familiar hardware, fed with a very unfamiliar fuel.
Built to move
We don’t know when – or if – the GR LH₂ will race. And it’s possible this exact car never will. But track testing is coming. Soon.
The purpose is clear: to develop a hydrogen combustion system that can survive in the heat, chaos, and brutality of a 24-hour race.
