This August, a Toyota sponsored Prius will compete at the Bonneville Nationals Speed Week in Utah. It will run in a new Production Class - Hybrid. Production vehicles are allowed only limited modifications by rule, and require full roll cages. The go-fast Prius will be based on the European/Australian car with bigger wheels, brakes and stiffer springs and shocks. The electric motor is being pumped up slightly and the ICE compression ratio is also bumped up marginally. No word on actual output yet. The car will be geared to reach 150 mph without blowing up. It's thought that the electric motor will be reliable, but questions remain about the ICE developing enough power at Bonneville's 1300m elevation to reach planned top speed. Since this will be a new class, we'll have bragging rights for the next year at least.
I wonder if this will be the "race prius" mentioned before -which uses the conventional ICE plus more battery vs. the Atkinson cycle - or would that be overly modified? I'd love to see this run. Wonder if acceleration would be slower due to taller gearing?
