The Toyota Prius is a Rally Car? What?

Toyota’s engineering team truly enjoys doing the unconventional. After all, this is the same team that put together a roaring internal combustion engine that burns hydrogen into a Corolla Hatchback. We’re still scratching our heads at that one. Plus there’s the COVID-19 vaccine distributing Toyota Land Cruiser, the Toyota Mega Cruiser, you get the idea. If a crazy idea hatched somewhere at Toyota, chances are the idea came to fruition in some way, shape, or form. The latest unconventional experiment on a car is a rally car constructed on the bones of a Toyota Prius and, well, you’ll just have to read to believe!

At Toyota of Clermont we’re breaking down the details on this unique ride and how Toyota took a, what’s perceived to be (wrongfully), mundane ride and turned it into a mudslinging professional.

Unconventional? Yes. Totally Cool? Also Yes

The Clermont Toyota Prius was designed to provide drivers with a cleaner driver that produces less emissions and gets impeccable fuel economy. That same idea from 1997 carries on today, but sometimes changing the formula can be fun. Anything you do with a Prius, other than making it a Prius, would be left field. But this? This is something truly special.

Rally races are unique in that they’re not technically circuit races. Drivers race from one point to another in specific “stages” using street-legal customized cars. Courses can be on private or public roads and can be on the actual road or in more of an off-roading type of setting. Other makes have popular models used in rallying, like Subaru, Audi, Ford, and so on. But, it’s not often you see the oddly shaped Clermont Toyota Prius taking on this type of event. Here are some of the finer details surrounding this enigmatic ride:

• So far, the rally-ready Toyota Prius has competed in one event in an untimed exhibition class. Because it’s built on a hybrid drivetrain it’s difficult to classify. This means that the American Rally Association (ARA) has some work to do.
• To conserve on overall curb weight several adjustments were made to the interior and glass. By adjustments, we mean the interior was basically gutted entirely to make way for a roll cage and 2 racing seats. The vehicle glass is instead Plexiglass, again, to conserve on weight. This is also why there’s no A/C system in the Toyota Prius rally car. To solve that issue? There’s a large roof-mounted scoop up top that helps pull cold air into the cabin when driving.
• You can also bet that the dashboard has adopted a minimalistic look for this Clermont hatchback. Meaning there’s hardly a dashboard at all.
• Obviously. building a rally-ready car with stock Toyota Prius parts wouldn’t work. Luckily, the 2020 model is built on Toyota’s TNGA platform, which is shared with several other models on the lineup. This makes swapping parts from other vehicles super simple. In a Frankenstein’s monster type of fashion, this Clermont Toyota Prius borrows dampers from the RAV4 TRD, front and rear axles from the Camry, and springs from the TRD Avalon.

Impressed? Well, you’ll likely never wind up driving this one-off Toyota Prius. But, there’s no reason to be sad! You can test drive a new Prius at Toyota of Clermont today and that’s pretty close. Visit us at 16851 State Road 50 today!

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