Back to the future! People are not talking about trading stock in Garmin when they mention GRMN lately, especially if they attended the Tokyo Motor Show. The Toyota motor corporation brought out their next gen model of their now classic MR-S/MR2-based GRMN Sports Hybrid Concept. Featuring abundant inclusion of light-weight carbon fiber and a completely revamped hybrid powertrain, they seem to be trying to make going green look easy with this new concept car model vehicle.
According to Autoblog Green, "The standard 2ZZ four-cylinder (or lesser 1ZZ in the States) has been swapped out for a 3.5-liter V6 mounted amidships and outputting 247 horsepower. While that's not much juice from a big V6, the addition of an electric motor powering the front wheels brings overall output up to just under 300 hp, allowing the 3,300-pound roadster to run to 60 mph in the mid-five-second range."
In case you have never been in a roadster with that much horsepower, just think, "Whee!"
The acronym GRMN is not an easy way to write the word German in car talk. It actually stands for "Gazoo Racing tuned by Meister of the Nürburgring," which Autoblog says refers to one of Toyota's most famous test drivers, the late Hiromu Naruse.
[He was sort of revered by the car company in the same way Lamborghini now treasures that wonderful man Valentino Balboni -- a gent this writer can't say enough nice things about since I had the pleasure of speaking with him about his participation in the Fireball Run, an American road rally that is held annually for the benefit of missing children's charities.]
"Along with the Lexus LFA Nürburgring Edition, this was the final vehicle Naruse-san worked on before his untimely demise, and it's one of maybe three vehicles at the show that we'd drive home tomorrow given the chance..." say the green car website writers when speaking of the hot wheels as a new car design for the future.
Follow more exotic car news @cafecars on Twitter.
Comments