Bright Spark

Toyota says the new Prius is much better to drive. So just to prove a point, it let us loose on a handling circuit in Japan. Shapur Kotwal tells us what it was like.

- Shapur Kotwal

Toyota’s Prius is a car that elicits a number of emotions. There’s respect to begin with, it is something of a technological marvel, there’s admiration for its global success, and it’s sort of cool too; it really is the template for the kind of car we’ll all be driving in the not too distant future.

But the Prius is also a car that elicits a lot of indifference, mostly because of how cold and unexciting this car is, both to drive and to look at.

Now Toyota want to change all that with its brand spanking new Prius. Yes, the Prius is the world’s first mass-produced petrol-electric hybrid, and this means it has its place in history, but the carmaker also wants Prius owners to enjoy the drive. This is why it has brought us to the F1 race track, under the shadow of the giant Mount Fuji volcano in rural Japan. We aren’t on the main circuit, thankfully, and there’s enough rain to douse the embers in Mount Fuji’s caldera, but the handling circuit is quite challenging and I’m quite keen to see how well the new Prius goes around corners.