Did you know there's a speed record for gravity-powered snow sledges? It's currently held by bike racer Guy Martin at 83.5mph (134.36km/h). But perhaps not for long—in Germany, Norwegian-based Snowspeed and Toyota Motorsport are working on a carbon fiber sledge that hopes to smash Martin's record by hitting at least 155mph (250km/h).

Based in Cologne, Germany, Toyota Motorsport GmbH is best known for its World Endurance Championship-winning race team, which took the 2014 crown with the 1000-horsepower hybrid TS040. Unfortunately, 2015 wasn't such a great year for the team. Although its revised car was a couple of seconds per lap quicker than the year before, both Audi and Porsche found even more speed, and the team had to settle for third place.

TMG is developing the new TS050 for this year's WEC, but the company does a lot more than build race cars. One of the ways it spends its considerable engineering and aerodynamics experience is on the Snowspeed, a gravity-powered sledge that looks like a Formula 1 car minus the wheels and wings.

"Speed skiers already exceed 250km/h and the current speed skiing record is held by Simone Origone, who reached 252.45km/h in 2014. Our sledge will be heavier and more aerodynamic than a skier, so we believe we can go even faster," said Snowspeed team member Jorn Madslien.

Early tests in TMG's wind tunnel revealed that the current Snowspeed design needs a bit more rear-end stability, and those adjustments will be the team's focus over the next year. "We will improve the design further over the next few weeks and aim to complete the final sledge in the next few months, ready for an attempt at the world speed record in 2017," said Nima Shahinian, Snowspeed's designer.

We'll continue to follow the project here at Ars and will provide update when the gravity racer takes to the mountains. No word on whether or not they'll let us take a ride in it, though hope springs eternal.