Is Lexus Planning a Major Motorsports Initiative with RC Coupe?


During a recent interview with Ward’s Auto, Lexus International’s Paul Williamsen talked about the future of Lexus racing:

[Williamsen] also hints Lexus will be expanding its role within motorsports, citing the 2012 and 2013 entries of the IS-F in the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb challenge as a good sign that racing will become a bigger part of Lexus’ future.

“In the premium luxury segment, there is a strong motivation among buyers to pay attention to performance,” Williamsen says, noting greater motorsports participation could be an important selling tool for distributors and dealers.

There was a similar sentiment in a recent Motor Trend article about the upcoming RC F high performance coupe:

The [RC F] also benefits from knowhow gained from racing at the Nurburgring with the Lexus IS F CCS-R race spec, which undercut the production IS F’s curb weight by some 650 pounds. We can look forward to seeing race versions of the RC F on tracks from Suzuka to Nurburgring to Laguna Seca as new internationally standardized Europe-Japan-U.S. race regulations come into play by 2017.

I was always surprised that the LFA was never used in racing outside of the Nürburgring VLN series in Germany, but this new coupe could mark a new chapter in Lexus racing — the RC nameplate is short for “Racing Coupe”, after all.

[Source: Ward’s Auto & Motor Trend]

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    Christiaan Lustig
  • August 12, 2013
Well, wouldn't it be nice if Lexus could join a racing series that's currently contested by fellow premium marques running D segment coupés... say, the DTM. And wouldn't it be even better if that series would synchronise its rules with its North-American and Japanese based equivalents... like, Super GT and the planned cooperation between DTM, Grand Am and IMSA?
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    rsxterminator
  • August 12, 2013
Super GT is a given, but it's a silhouette car and not really relevant. imo the real target is LeMans. remember the LFA GTE mock up? toyota may never win over audi (and now porsche) in LMP1. audi simply spends too much on development to be topped. however, is toyota targeting a GTE victory with a RCF GTE? the 5L V8 is well within the displacement limit for GTE. imo all roads lead to le mans... what about GT3? well besides not being as prestigious as GTE (running at le mans), GT3 is a customer car series. imo toyota/lexus would want a manufacturer win at le mans. LMP1 may be out of reach for now, but GTE may be perfect in the meantime...

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