‘Evolved’ hydrogen-powered Toyota GR Corolla participates at Super Taikyu race

MANILA: Toyota has fielded an “evolved” hydrogen-powered GR Corolla at the Super Taikyu Fuji 24 Hours Race.

Soon to be headed by Akio “Morizo” Toyoda, the Super Taikyu race series played host to the #32 ORC Rookie GR Corolla H2 Concept, which sported several upgrades.

More durable liquid hydrogen pump

Improvements on the Toyota GR Corolla — which runs on liquid hydrogen — included a more durable liquid hydrogen pump.

“The liquid hydrogen-powered GR Corolla uses a reciprocating pump that pumps the fuel, through the reciprocating motion of a piston when transferring hydrogen from the fuel tank to the engine. Because of the high pressure range this pump generates, the bearings which allow smooth rotation of the shaft and gears on one side of the crank, which transfers torque to the motor by converting reciprocating motion into rotational motion, were unevenly loaded, causing them to wear out and degrade quickly,” Toyota explained in a press release.

On that note, the team used a dual-drive crank mechanism to increase the liquid hydrogen pump’s durability.

“The application of motor torque from both ends of the crank enables the boosting piston to move in a well-balanced manner, thereby significantly increasing pump durability,” Toyota wrote.

Custom-shaped tank

The #32 race car was also fitted with a custom-shaped tank. The aim of using a special fuel tank was to improve the car’s cruising range by increasing the amount of liquid nitrogen it can carry.

Per Toyota, it used an oval tank to make more efficient use of cabin space. As a result, the taken had a capacity 1.5 times higher than that of the previous design.

“This doubles the hydrogen volume, and thus cruising range, over the 70 MPa (Megapascal) compressed gaseous hydrogen tanks used until 2022,” the company stated.

Automated CO2 capture device

The team also equipped the hydrogen-powered Toyota Corolla race car with an automated carbon-dioxide (CO2) capture device in the engine compartment. The automatic mechanism slowly rotates the CO2 absorption filter while driving.

The #32 ORC Rookie GR Corolla H2 Concept race car competed with the likes of the ORC Rookie GR86 CNF Concept, Honda Civic Type R CNF-R, and the Nismo Nissan Z Racing Concept, which took the fastest lap in the race.

Photos from Toyota

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