jruhi4

I don't mean to threadjack, but, lost in the historical importance of the LF-A's racing debut was the fact that the ADAC Rennstrecken Trophy race saw a second Lexus racer in action: an IS 250. For more on that story, check out this my.IS Front Page story:
http://my.is/forums/f47/mystery-dau-0683-solved-361153/

XeroK00L

Thanks jruhi4 for the very nicely summarized write-up. I didn't even realize the result of the IS250 is also on the same page when I posted the link for the LF-A's participation. Good eyes there!

What baffles me now is how the heck the "Group SP5 consists of cars between 2.0- and 2.5-liters", while the race result clearly shows that both the E46 M3 (3.2L) and the E36 M3 (3.0/3.2L) (and the winning M3, whose code name is not shown) are in the same SP5 class as the IS250. Did those M3 race cars get an engine downgrade or something?

jruhi4

Believe me, I was just as baffled as you are, and spent considerable time trying to track down the SP5 class rules, to no avail. Here's a passage from the article:

"A listing of the cars competing in the Rennstrecken Trophy races... reveals 6 competitors for the TME/Team Gazoo Lexus IS 250: An Audi A3, a BMW 130i and four BMW M3s. Of the latter, three are further described as GTR, E46 and E36. That list of competitors makes Jalopnik's description of the ADAC Group SP5 as consisting of cars between 2.0- and 2.5-liters suspect, as all of the TME/Team Gazoo IS 250's rivals, with the possible exceptions of the Audi A3 and the no-further-description BMW M3 (car #203) are powered by engines of 3-liters or larger displacement."

Dave600hL

You gotta have a look at the profanity filter when it starts blocking names...

"K i n o s h i t a"

jruhi4

LMAO! That's hilarious!

encore888

Wow, good job to the LF-A for winning its category, or shall I say being the successful finisher , and nice job to the IS team for getting second place in their category!

Of course, for the LF-A, Lexus will probably only say 'it was done for research purposes only.'

LexFather

interesting

Thank you Avensis

XeroK00L

Hey avensis03, is there a way to tell what the overall ranking of the LF-A is? I know the Z4 is the first overall, but how to you tell the rest? Thanks!

JessePS

5.0L V8 with like 550-570hp is pretty amazing.

Guess we will only know when Lexus comes out with the actual specs.

XeroK00L

In the race video the LF-A sounds like the same screaming V10 to me like it does in every other LF-A video. It must've simply been a mistake in the spec listing. I would be seriously disappointed if the LF-A switches to a V8. A V10 is simply that much more exotic.

JessePS

True.

One thing is, isn't F1 switching from V10 to V8 engines? If I remember correctly Lexus wanted to have a drivable F1 for the road or am I just making that up!?

gengar

F1 already switched from V10 to V8, in 2006. But when the LF-A was first prototyped (2005ish?), F1 was still using V10 engines.

JHStrange

I'm sure we all hope they offer the V10. I recall the Jaguar XJ220 which was first unveiled with a V12 and generated a lot of buzz and orders. When it hit production, it had a turbo V6. Sales evaporated and law suits prevailed even though it was just as fast, it didn't have that cache.

Vladi

It's probably not a mistake. 5.0 V8 is what they are using in Super GT series so in other words its a race engine while V10 that might end in LF-A is not.

jruhi4

It seems the LF-A came in 77th overall, according to an Autoblog article, which, by the way, also includes a video. Sorry, I'm pressed for time, so all I can do is post the link:
http://www.autoblog.com/2008/05/13/v...g-at-the-ring/