Toyota Has Built Its Own 'Mini Nurburgring' Test Track In Japan
With Nurburgring industry pool testing as popular as ever, Toyota has decided to build its very own Nordschleife in a more convenient location.
The company has announced that the “central section” of the Toyota Technical Center Shimoyama has now been finished, and a big part of this new R&D facility is a 3.3-mile test track.
“Based on long experience of the Nürburgring Nordschleife, which is famous throughout the world for its grueling driving conditions, Toyota has designed an exacting test course,” the company says. Built in a mountainous region around 30 minutes drive from its HQ in Toyota City, it has a 75-meter elevation change between the highest and lowest bits, plus “a wide range of curves and corners.”
Currently, there are 50 people employed at the site, almost all of them being test drivers. Eventually, though, the whole facility will have 3300 people working there, and it’ll cover an area of around four square miles.
Conserving the environment of the site was a high priority, and Toyota says it’s managed to keep around 70 per cent of the existing greenery, as well as creating new “green spaces”.
The completed R&D base will open in 2023, at a total cost of around 300 billion yen, which is just over £2 billion. Along with the ‘Ring-like ‘country road’ course, there’ll be a high-speed loop and a series of test tracks designed to replicate road conditions from around the world. Presumably, this will include a liberally pot-holed stretch of tarmac to mirror the UK’s highways…
Growing up on a diet of World Rally Championship highlights and lengthy Gran Turismo 2 sessions, a life in cars was as good as inevitable for Matt.
Comments
But if Toyota want to do a timed lap on the actual n’ring they still have to go there. There is also no point in having this as you have no idea about the lap times compared to the actual ring.
It’s not about Laptimes, it’s about suspension setup
Damn that’s a lot of dislikes
Nice
Well if its good at getting that suspension setup right for the cars then I am all for it, besides at least it provides Japan with a proving grounds at a fraction of the cost of shipping everything over to Germany for testing
Reminds me of the Alpine Hill Course that Top Gear used to race the semis on.
my god, can they ever open it to the public once in a while? We would love to bring our own cars there just to drive.
+1 I’d go as a tourism thing. Surely things like this are worth a look as Japan’s economy flatlines.
Why exactly would they need to test a Prius on a race track? To test its ability to annoyingly slow down in front of people?
The new ones are quite quick tbh
A lot of companies will tout how much they love the Nordschleife, and how much it was responsible for inspiring their cars. And a lot of people will give Toyota shit for seemingly not caring for performance cars as much as they used to. But I cannot fathom the level of care and love Toyota must have for such a track that they actually went ahead and spent the huge sum of money to create their own one in their ‘back garden’. Even if it is just to test the next generation of Priuses, the gesture goes a million miles further than any ‘N’ badge.
I tip my proverbial hat to you, Toyota.
Keep in mind that Hyundai’s “N” stands for their Namyang test facility in Korea. The UK marketing team disregarded this and subbed it out for Nurburgring.
this should make the FrontWD camry a real porsche-killer for those who do school runs and trips to the local Asda
Will this one be just as deadly?
I read the title and immediately thought of a go kart sized Nurburgring. Now I know my purpose in life.
You better make that!