Last week end, the Toyota Mirai made its motorsport debut at the ADAC Rallye Deutschland, becoming the first hydrogen-powered vehicle to open a World Rally Championship (WRC) event. This premiere has not been set up by Toyota itself. The car was privately-owned by and piloted by its Japanese owner Mitsuhiro Kunisawa. He is an experienced rally driver who has competed in the Asia-Pacific Rally Championship and WRC Rally Japan, and is also a leading freelance journalist, having formerly served as editor of Japan’s “Best Car” magazine.

To make the Mirai rally-ready, Mr Kunisawa has fitted the fuel-cell car with a roll cage, race seats, competition tyres and uprated brake pads, but hasn’t made any changes to the electronic systems governing the 113kW fuel cell powertrain. The car’s performance remained unchanged, with a 0-100km/h sprint time of 9.6 seconds.

However, Toyota Germany has aided in arranging support services for the rally, primarily in the form of a mobile hydrogen refuelling unit that could fill the Mirai’s super-strong hydrogen tanks in only three minutes.

Emitting only water vapor and making no noise, the Mirai paves the way a for a pollution free motorsport.

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