HYDROGENHILLCLIMBER

Sport All the action from the world of motorsport Can a fuel-cell car excel in motorsport? Our hillclimb debut in Toyota’s Mirai reveals all

AUTO Express is always keen to break new ground. So when we found out that nobody outside Japan had ever competed in motorsport in a hydrogen fuel-cell car, we decided we wanted to set the record straight by taking part in the British Hillclimb Championship in Toyota’s new Mirai.

The event, at Gurston Down, Wiltshire, was the latest episode of the Primo plc Multi Vehicle Insurance Hillclimb Challenge. I enter British Championship rounds in a variety of manufacturer cars, partly to raise awareness for the Nationwide Association of Blood Bikes. Although the Mirai was never going to be the fastest or most exciting car of the season, I thought the idea of competing in it was fascinating.

So did the Gurston organisers, who wanted their event to be historically significant. And so, too, did Toyota, which arranged for the dark-blue Mirai to be given a chrome wrap for maximum visual effect.

By contrast, the Motor Sports Association (MSA) – UK motorsport’s governing body, which had never previously needed to consider a car carrying a large tank of hydrogen on board – reacted with alarm.

The Mirai, it insisted, had to be followed up the hill by an official vehicle containing a Toyota technician, who would advise the marshals on what they should do if something dreadful happened. As the tank in question is made of 15mm-thick carbon fibre and can withstand nothing less than gunfire, this seemed rather over-cautious – but you’re not going to argue about safety precautions when you’re the one sitting behind the wheel.

Racing the Mirai was easy enough. There’s only one gear, so all you have to do is accelerate, brake and point the car in the right direction. The most difficult part is the almost complete lack of sound effects. Other than a distant whine from the electric motor, some wind rush and, when you’re pushing hard, a bit of tyre squeal, there are no aural clues as to how fast you’re going. Spectators later told me they also found it confusing that they could see the Toyota but barely hear it.

With a maximum output of 150bhp, the motor is powerful enough, but as the Mirai weighs more than 1,800kg, its straight-line performance is modest. Through the speed trap at Gurston’s finish line, where the meeting’s fastest cars (which had more than four times the FCV’S power and a quarter of the weight) exceeded 140mph, the best the Toyota could manage was 62mph.

On the other hand, the Mirai handled far better than expected. It could even be chucked into corners entertainingly quickly, with a good chance that it would come out the other end – with perhaps a hint of a tail slide to help things along.

Driven this way, it could cover the whole course in just over 45 seconds, and it did so on each of the four practice runs. The competitive demon inside my head wasn’t prepared to accept this, though, and it kept telling me that a car capable of a time in the low 45s must have a 44 in it.

Sure enough, after paying great attention to lines, triple-checking that all the settings were correct (Power Mode on, air-conditioning off, traction control on) and folding in the mirrors to reduce aerodynamic drag, I eventually managed a nicely symmetrical 44.44 seconds. You might like to remember this as the Gurston record for hydrogen fuel-cell cars, just in case the question comes up in a pub quiz.

After that, a celebratory cup of coffee seemed in order – and, even better, it could be brewed using the water the Mirai had produced during the process of making electricity from hydrogen. Toyota doesn’t recommend this, but it tasted fine and there haven’t been any side effects... yet.

“Other than a distant whine from the motor, there are no aural clues as to how fast you’re going”

ALTHOUGH hydrogen fuel-cell cars are a very rare sight in motorsport, people have been competing in electric vehicles since the 19th century. Camille Jenatzy won the first-ever stand-alone hillclimb near Paris with the battery-powered La Jamais Contente; a car that also held the land speed record.

After a long period as a minority interest, electric racers returned in style in 2014 with the launch of Formula E. The series is now in its second season, and the cars (above) compete on special tracks in major cities around the world.

Meanwhile, Audi, Porsche and Toyota all compete in the World Endurance Championship in hybrids, while Audi popularised the use of diesel in this category some years ago, as did sister company SEAT in World Touring Cars.

A private team ran LPG Fords in the 2010 British Touring Car Championship, but Vauxhall was the first maker to win a UK race in a gas car, 11 years earlier.