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Lexus Introduces New Global Racing Program

Posted by Kevin on January 14th, 2015

Lexus revealed details on their new racing program during their Detroit Auto Show press conference yesterday.

Alongside a continued presence in the Japanese Super GT series, the brand plans to introduce the RC F GT3 race car into the FIA GT3 category in Europe this year, with plans to race in a “yet-to-be-determined series” in the United States in 2016.

I talked with Lexus USA general manager Jeff Bracken about the program and a possible driver program, here’s what he had to say:

I’ve been in my role for almost two years, and let me tell you, from day one, I’ve been looking forward to this day to making this announcement.

We’re going to take this in steps — once we pass homologation, we’ll sit down and effectively define who will be the team that we work with, who the driver will be, who the sponsors will be. That can definitely lead into privateer racing and maybe gentleman racing as well.

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Comments
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    corradoMR2
  • January 14, 2015
F1 is the pinnacle of racing motorsports and would be a real treat to see Lexus (not Toyota) return to compete against Infiniti, BMW, and Mercedes.
J
I like the original logo Lexus Racing logo.
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    05rollaxrs
  • January 15, 2015
Whatever happened to the monster Lexus LFA Code X with the 5.3 Liter V10? It did spectacular last year placing in the top 10 at the Nurburgring endurance racing in its first run.
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      Steve
    • January 15, 2015
    It will still likely be entered in the races alongside the RC F GT3, just in different classes. The RC F's responsibility in racing is to help grow the F marque to the mainstream and garner Lexus attention as a car that folks can more readily identify, as it is a current production car. The goal is obviously to win in racing while the business modal associated with winning is to have people say, "Hey what about this car? The RC." as opposed to "Hey what about this car? The LFA. Wait it's $400,000...?!?! and not in production..." It provides Lexus the opportunity to win races, grow the Lexus/F marque as a whole, and potentially release an X amount of uniquely designed special edition commemorative RC F's for say $4k-$6k more than the average RC F. (DTM victories often enable this for German manufacturers to have their variants of celebratory cars) Can do that with the LFA, but will have a lot less buyers...
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    B
  • January 15, 2015
Fingers crossed for the Tudor United Sports Car series in the USA. If you want to sell performance cars (RC, RC F), you've got to race - and win. Good luck!

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