If you ever think about the electric Toyota bZ4X, it’s likely for one of two reasons – its baffling name or those early issues the car had where its wheels might occasionally become unattached. Safe to say it doesn’t register as highly as, say, the GR Yaris in our consciousness of current Toyota products.
Here’s a helpful reminder that it exists, though – Toyota has given the car a 400bhp, high-downforce makeover for next month’s SEMA show.
Toyota bZ Time Attack – rear
Called the bZ Time Attack (helpfully adopting the US market bZ4X’s marginally less confusing name), it’s based on the regular 338bhp dual-motor car, but Toyota Motorsports has had a fiddle around with the motors so they now produce a peak of upwards of 400bhp.
It’s a whole 150mm lower and wider than the standard car too, thanks in part to a set of TEIN coilovers. That newfound wideness is accommodated by a set of 3D-printed arch flares, part of an aero kit that also includes a front splitter, massive rear diffuser and a truly enormous wing.
Toyota bZ Time Attack – interior
A set of Alcon brakes borrowed from a GR86 Cup racer, 19-inch BBS wheels and sticky Continental Extreme Contact rubber complete the chassis changes. Inside, meanwhile, the bZ4X has had nearly all of its interior niceties thrown in the bin, replaced by a pair of OMP racing seats and a full FIA-grade roll cage.
Why’s Toyota gone to all this bother for a one-off show car? Well, why not, for a start? It’s certainly made the bZ4X a whole lot more interesting to us. But also, the company says the Time Attack isn’t just a show pony, but “a rolling test bed for the next generation of EV motorsport development.” If, then, in a decade’s time, Toyota rolls out some mind-meltingly fast electric race car, think back to this thing and tip your hat to it.
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