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Turbo Line Blamed for Toyota’s Last-Minute Le Mans Collapse
Toyota Motor Corp. says a defective air-line connector between the turbocharger and intercooler caused its TS050 hybrid-powered race car to stall on the final lap of last weekend’s 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race.
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Toyota Motor Corp. says a defective air-line connector between the turbocharger and intercooler caused its TS050 hybrid-powered race car to stall on the final lap of last weekend’s 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race.
The car was in first place at the time of the failure with less than four minutes left in the race. Although modifications were made to allow the vehicle to finish, it was disqualified for not meeting the 6-minute limit to complete the final lap.
A Porsche team went on to win Le Mans, while another Toyota TS050 finished third. Toyota has never won the race; Mazda is the only Japanese company to do so with its 1991 victory.
Toyota is conducting an engineering investigation to determine the root cause of the turbo line failure. But it says the issue is not related to the engine problem it suffered at last month’s 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps race in Belgium.
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