Toyota, if nothing else, deserves credit for putting its TS030 hybrid racer where its mouth is - the World Endurance championship, competing against the world's fastest conventional sports-cars.
And that paid off at the weekend with second place overall - and the fastest lap of the race - in the Six Hours of Silverstone in England.
Drivers Alex Wurz, Nicolas Lapierre and Kazuki Nakajima were on the pace from the first practice and qualified third - but at the rolling start Wurz used the extra acceleration provided by the hybrid powertrain to jump into second behind the No.1 Audi.
Just 21 minutes into the race he took the lead with a bold move in traffic and handed over to Nakajima with the TS030 firmly in contention. Nakajima put in a strong stint, interrupted by a safety car period around the two-hour mark.
T hat allowed Benoît Treluyer in the Audi to close right up.
From then on the leaders went at it like it was a sprint race; Treluyer dived up the inside just before the halfway point, only for Nakajima to strike back just one corner later.
Lapierre took over soon after and kept up the fight, setting the fastest lap of the race on lap 139 before handing over to Wurz for a final stint of just under two hours.
He put in a series of fast laps to build a cushion over the third-place car, allowing him to make a final 'splash and dash' pit stop and rejoin in second with less than 30 minutes remaining.
Unable to close the gap on the leading Audi, Wurz concentrated on bringing the car home in one piece, crossing the line 55.675secs in arrears for the team's first podium finish - and their first WEC points.
He said afterwards:“To get second, in only our second race, eight months after our first roll-out and against a competitor with more than a decade of experience - this is great!”
Lapierre said his double stint wasn't easy.
“I was unlucky in the traffic,” he said, “but we had really good pace today with our new aerodynamic package. We were consistent and setting the fastest lap shows we have the potential to win a race.
Nakajima enjoyed his dice with Treluyer.
“Despite a lot of traffic I had a good stint,” he said, “and the car was nicely balanced.”
“It was important for us to have a clean race after the disaster at Le Mans - our first podium was a bonus!”
The hybrid racer's next outing will be the Six Hours of Sao Paulo on 15 September at Interlagos in Brazil, when the team will have only two drivers, Wurz and Lapierre.