YotaTech Drives the 600 Horsepower Toyota C-HR R-Tuned Race Car

This is a real downforce car.

Stay on throttle through the corner, let that magic differential handle the power delivery and trust in the tire grip. Coming from a history of tracking street cars, I was floored by the level of poise the R-Tuned had. The engine is so manic, but the driving experience is serene and delightful. There is grip, everywhere, all the time. There is no understeer, there is no oversteer. It just steers, and goes.

The C-HR R-Tuned makes a claimed 300 pounds of downforce at 120 MPH, and 400 pounds of it at 150. The previously mentioned aerodynamic upgrades are all adjustable. Well, they are now. The team found out that at 150 MPH, their peak cornering speed at Willow Springs (!), the splitter was distorting as it was too long.

It’s a lot to take in. If you haven’t driven Willow Springs, how do you contextualize this level of performance? Well, Toyota and DG-spec had an idea about that. Let’s take a very fast car, let’s say say…a Nissan GT-R. And then lets see how it stacks up against the R-Tuned. What a great idea.

Toyota C-HR R-Tuned vs. Nissan GT-R

First, they let me behind the wheel of the GT-R to see how it stacked up against the R-Tuned. In short, it’s very fast in a straight line, but lacked poise compared to the R-Tuned. The Nissan’s heft was unavoidable in the braking zones, and during cornering. The R-Tuned is a much faster vehicle, and a scalpel compared to the GT-R and its butcher’s knife impersonation.

After letting me play with the GT-R, it was time for a track battle: C-HR R-Tuned vs. Nissan GT-R in a dogfight around Willow Springs.

Even giving the GT-R a head start, it was all over by turn 3. A 600 horsepower street car has no chance against a 600 horsepower track car, but, man, was it fun to watch.

Toyota had a much higher benchmark than a standard GT-R when developing the R-Tuned. The team ran a 1:25.12 lap time around Big Willow, which is brutally fast. To contextualize that: That slots it in-between the Lamborghini Huracan LP610-4, and the Lamborghini Aventador LP750-4 SV, and it is faster than a McLaren 650 S. That’s some serious competition.

I took a second lap in the R-Tuned and it was bittersweet. It’s so good that I wanted more, but the sun was setting and it was time to leave.

Toyota will be using the C-HR R-Tuned for appearances at events all over the country. Last weekend it was at the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. If the R-Tuned is coming your way, it’s worth making a trip to see it, because they have built something very special here. The C-HR R-Tuned has spunk and spirit, and I can’t think of a better way to showcase the passion behind the engineering the brand puts into their vehicles.

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Jacob Stumph

Jake Stumph is a lifelong car enthusiast and racer, who has operated as the content editor for Internet Brands Automotive since 2015. He runs Corvette Forum, 6SpeedOnline, Honda-tech, and LS1tech, among other Internet Brands Automotive websites. His work has been featured by several other prominent automotive outlets, including Jalopnik and Autobytel.

He obtained a bachelor's degree in Political Science at the Ohio State University in 2013, then pivoted from covering politics and policy to writing about his automotive adventures, something that, he says, is a lot more fun. Since that time, he has established connections with most of the world's major automakers, as well as other key brands in the automotive industry.

He enjoys track days, drifting, and autocross, at least, when his cars are running right, which is uncommon. You can check out what he's up to on his YouTube channel, as well as his Jake Stumph Racing Instagram account. He can be reached via email at stumph.jake@gmail.com