It lives! It turns laps! The new turbo engine for Toyota’s FT-60 race car has completed its installation phase and has lapped circuits in Italy, the home of chassis builder Tatuus.
In case that seems unremarkable, remember Europe is in the grip of a record heat wave – 45 degrees and more – and that the engine, turbo, plumbing, cooling and exhaust are all crammed into a single-seater chassis with the heat management issues that entails.
In quick succession, the car ran at Vairano, Cremona and Franciacorta with TRS alumni driver Arjun Maini at the wheel.
As noted by those who attended the launch or the recent CRC Speedshow, the 2020 car is notably bigger than the FT-50 it replaces. The FT-60 uses the same chassis as that in other global junior formulae – which is part of what makes TRS the most attractive of the ‘junior’ championship options – but is powered by an all-new race version of the Lexus 8AR FTS 2.0-litre turbo four cylinder engine.
Maini says the engine and chassis work well together and the car, feels like a “much more modern” racing car. Its size and turbo power follow the direction formula racing is now heading, right up to and including F1.
That makes it a unique ‘bridge’ between the less powerful, lower ‘aero’ cars of Formula Renault and MRF with their current 2.0-litre naturally aspirated engines and the wild ride of the new FIA Formula 3 cars, which are now lapping up to two seconds faster than the GP3 cars they replaced at the beginning of the season.
The other junior championships offer cars with current chassis and engines making 200-225 bhp; the Lexus engine in race tune sets a 212 kW (285 bhp) benchmark. Consider the figure conservative, all indications are that the unit is good for at least 225 kW (300 bhp). The lower figure enables the championship to have confidence in the reliability of the power unit across a whole championship.
The all-alloy engine is square – 86 mm bore and 86 mm stroke – often considered a racer’s ideal for its blend of quick response and fat torque curve. In standard trim the engine makes 350 Nm between 1,650 and 4,000 rpm.
Created in 2015, the 8AR FTS (catchy name that) is used in the NX200t and IS 300 road cars (2018 onward) and in the latter produces 183 kW (245 bhp) at 5,600 rpm. It’s the first inline four cylinder turbo engine since Toyota ended production of the 3S-GE and its BEAMS derivatives, long beloved of drifters, tuners, rally teams and club racers.
That engine in rally trim as the 3S-GTE powered the Corolla World Rally Car to a manufacturer’s world title in 1999 – Toyota’s last gravel crown until the Yaris WRC took the manufacturer’s title in 2018.
Part of engine guru David Gouk’s work in these winter months will be to arrive at a re-profiled engine that has a stronger race-style power curve at the upper end without sacrificing too much mid-range torque.
The big test will be when the car hits the track in New Zealand and goes racing. It’s a much more complex offering than the 2ZZ-GE 1.8-litre donk it replaces; that engine had an incredible reliability record for a race engine based on the production engine block. In ten seasons, its only failings were externally driven – oil starves at Taupo when the drivers held the throttle wide open through a certain high speed corner that had a bomb-hole apex and a driver-friendly ripple strip. Engine bearings, it turns out, aren’t well lubricated by oily frothy air! That behaviour calmed down when it was pointed out to drivers that a DNF meant no points and that the fraction of a second shaved off a lap time was really not worth that risk.
Toyota Racing New Zealand chose their test driver well. Arjun Maini is a cool head and a smooth, fast racer who is capable of giving excellent technical feedback. Maini’s impressions across the 900 km of test laps were unswervingly favourable. This new engine, he said, is strong and driveable, and will reward a driving style young hopefuls need to develop as they progress a single seater career path.
Arjun Maini – living the dream
It occurs to me that New Zealand race fans rightly make a big deal of Kiwis who have come through the Toyota Racing Series but seem to forget about racers from other countries who have made the trip down-under and gone on to bigger things.
Having met a lot of these drivers I think that’s very wrong. Kiwi race fans – and the wider racing community – need to be watching TRS closely and celebrating all the drivers who emerge and step up, honed and fast after a rapid-ire five week winter championship racing against the world’s best.
Lando Norris arrived fast and left faster. Lance Stroll made the most of his time here. Prema F3 drivers Marcus Armstrong and Jehan Daruvala likewise honed their already formidable skills here. Callum Ilott was named a Red Bull Junior while racing here. And then there’s Arjun Maini.
The nominated test pilot for FT-60’s engine runs, Arjun raced Formula 2 (the old GP2) last year and was also year signed by Haas F1 as development driver. He switched his racing effort to the European Le Mans GTs this year and also contested the 24 hours race at Le Mans but remains determined to step up to F1.
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