The Porsches and the Audi were quicker but the honour of "Coolest Car" could only head one way at the Nurburgring, the real attention getter was the pair of Lexus LF-A run by Gazoo Racing.
From the unusual and dramatic shape to the scream of the V10 engine they were undoubtedly the stars of the show.
There was also an air of mystery about them, from the secret driver, identified as President elect of the Toyota Motor Corporation to the determination of the mechanics and sundry factotums to keep the likes of me away from the interior of the cars, though to be fair this did abate a bit as the week dragged on.
At the final analysis the LF A sportscars finished adrift of the Lexus IS-F also run by the team. The 14 car managed 114 laps or 2,893 kilometres over the 24 hours.
That equates to an average speed of 74.9 miles per hour. The driver line up of "Morizo", Javier Quiros, Takayuki Kinoshita and Akira Iida can feel pretty pleased with this performance.
The second car managed 106 laps and was retired after an accident, actually that's what I think happened as the information from the team is hard to come by.
The potential of the car was shown by its fastest lap of 8:50.458, only around 10 to 15 seconds shy of the best Porsches and Audis…..the speed is there.
The 14 car's best time was 9:01.417, still very respectable on the combined Nurburgring track.
The whole excercise was first and foremast about finishing the race and proving the components, prior to the release of the road car……….hopefully.
There was also an element of developing the talents of the engineers who crewed the cars, could explain their enthusiasm to prevent rogues like me getting access.
Not that I took any notice………..I am a SpeedHunter after all, I have my responsibilities to the readers.
So I just wanted to share some of the images of these very cool cars……………..
The images of the interior come courtesy of Lexus, so a big thanks for that.
The Lexus at dawn.
Incognito………….not
Steering Wheel and big RED rev counter.
In the Grand Prix section.
Pit stop at night.
Racing into the night……………
Rear 3/4 view.
V-10 power.
Let's hope we see more of this project and even a GT1 version to take on the Nissan GT-R…………..please!
-John Brooks
OFFICIAL SPEEDHUNTERS SUPPLIERS
that key!s steering wheel is nice.. kinda cool to see that
#15 burned out, it was shown on TV.
Falken or Bridgestone?
What a race! Cant wait for NFS Shift release to recreate my version of 24h Nur in LF-A concept car.
Great post! Can't wait to see the production version!
@Alex nr.15 didnt 'burn out', i think it caught fire in the right radiator compartment but it was extinguished very fast by one of the track stewards. TV showed the LF-A was still able to drive, but by precaution it was towed off the track. Let's hope its back on track soon for the next 4 hour race in 2 weeks.
excellent coverage, just what i wanted to see. good stuff mr brooks! that last pic is something special.
If that was an air jack system hotness!
Great.
Pic #5 u know the drill.
The roof lines, the A pillar, the side windows... from certain angle do look like it retained the supra looks..
Only 10-15 seconds slower than the Porsches and Audis? Toyota/Lexus has a lot of work to do. Honestly this Lexus sports car is going to be a hard sell especially at the price Lexus is asking for. Let's hope the actual road car looks appealing.
lexus/toyota was know the second time at the ring, they have theire motorsport developing center in cologne (about 1-2h by car away from the ring) (that's were the wrc cars where build, as well as the gt-one, and know the formel 1 cars etc.). the cars looks nothing like a streatcar and they were beaten by vw sciroco's. the speed, as well as reability ist not theire. you have to consider that audi was the first time at the ring, as well as the reiter ford gt40. they were both faster then the lexus.
Awesome coverage. I wonder what they have that V10 screaming at?? I always said a car company should use their F1 technology on a production road car and have it rev out too, say 14,000rpm. That's cake compared to the 19,000rpm they used to run on the old V10 F1 cars. Now maybe once the economy levels out they will release this beauty.
You will never see a street car revving that high from the factory, but I suppose you could get some smaller lighter cylinders and up the compression like a mofo, but somehow I doubt you would get all the way up to 14k.
No.15 caught fire and was towed off the track by a Volkswagen Tiguan. Epically cool.
Creating a ton of hype for a car that doesn't even have a street counterpart yet, and then not even placing in the top ten: Coolness. Toyota should stop trying to race the big boys and stick with Super GT, where they can actually win races.
Toyota FTW!
The underhood shot was the one I was looking for... and LOL... stealth duct tape!!
i dont think its really fair to make judgments based on one performance. especially when you dont consider the fact that you have no idea the purpose of the exercise.
look at the suspension. its straight up production car. also, driven by who? the ceo? do you really expect him to be on pace with professional race car drivers?
as far as comparing to audis and porches/gt40 etc. its a little different. the car is still in development. its not just first time out on the track. its not even a production car.