Toyota GR HV Sports Concept is a GT86 with Le Mans inspiration and HYBRID powertrain

The Toyota GR HV Sports Concept has been revealed ahead of a Tokyo Motor Show debut as a GT86 with a Le Mans inspiration and hybrid powertrain.

With the Tokyo Motor Show looming, Japanese car makers are starting to reveal what they have planned for their home show, including concepts.

Enter the Toyota GR HV Sports Concept, a car Toyota says takes inspiration from the TS050 Le Mans car and is based on the Toyota GT86.

Toyota has taken the GT86 and given it stacked lights at the front which look like those on the Le Mans car, giving the GT86 a flatter nose.

There’s also a big diffuser at the back and high mounted central exhaust, with a menacing matt black paint job,  Le Mans alloys and a Targa roof harking back to previous Toyota Sports Cars like the Sport 800 and Supra Aero.

Under the skin is a ‘Toyota Hybrid System-Racing’ powertrain, inspired by the Le Mans car for what Toyota are calling ‘Genuine sports car thrills’, although they’ve give no indication of its output.

Interestingly, the GR HV also comes with an automatic box, but at the press of a button you can change it in to an automated manual with the gear shift turning in to a six-speed H-pattern ‘manual’.

It seems highly unlikely this concept is anything more than an indication of Toyota’s interest in using hybrid powertrains as performance aids as well as ‘Green’ powertrains in the future, although perhaps the Targa top is a nod at something to come.