Fsport416

When Lexus announced their participation in the IMSA Weathertech Championship this year with their RCF GT3, I had to check this out. The 24hrs of Daytona is something you have to check out. 24hrs of nonstop racing, rain or shine, cold or hot. Great place to watch which car manufacturer can make it to the end. Anyway, the RCF GT3 up close was awesome to look at with its Lexus “Aluminum Foil Blue” wrap. Its wide body fenders and GT3 spec wing made the car look really aggressive and unique among the other manufacturers. The one thing I was curious about was how their engine made 500+hp and why we dont have this engine in our production cars. After speaking with some of the drivers regarding the engine they advised me to visit their Lexus booth located in the infield. Unfortunately, they couldnt tell me all their secrets but I did learn some. Turns out the engine used in the RCF GT3 is kinda similar (sorta) to what is found in a production RCF/GSF. The one difference I noticed was the engine is a 5.4L instead of 5.0L. In addition it also has a dry sump. Im pretty sure there might other secrets to make that 500+hp but having a bigger displacement is key. Also, the brakes they used are AP racing. Check out the pics. Unfortunately, the #14 car of Scott Pruett crashed out. But the sister car #15 finished and survived all 24hrs of racing. Not too bad for their debut! Good luck to the 3GT Racing team this year!

knifeman

Sage Karam is from my area so I was curious to see how he would do, but I don't think he even had his first stint before Pruett wrecked the car. Am I correct? Anyway, I like the close-up pics of the car. How did you get into the garage?

Fsport416

I got the pit passes and some talking with the crew allowed me to get close to the car. I believe only Pruett got to drive #14 before crashing it...bummer. It suxs because I spoke with Pruett after the race and he said the car was very competitive and actually was slowly making its way up in class. Cant wait to see them in Long Beach!

mr2dave

Yes, if you have never had an opportunity to view a Daytona 24 live event and you are a car guy/girl, you really need to make an effort.

I too was there this year and the Lexus' looked pretty good earlier in the week during practice and the other poster was correct in that the Pruitt deal was in the other car.

You Lexus guys might enjoy this. Guess which manufacturer was the very first car to suffer a failure after just a handful of laps and was unable to make it back to the pits and left standed in front of the main grandstands and required a wrecker? Yep, BMW. That said, the other BMW's had a pretty good sound, looked ready to eat anything raw and were competitive in their segments at times.

CYKBC

iTrader: (2)

Good on you to ask the $1m question about the engine. Race on Sunday, sell on Monday matters to me. This is what Porsche does really well marketing its Mezger GT3 engine where it is truly a race-bred unit sohoping Lexus finds a way to do something similar in the future as many street car engines are a variety of wet sump as the dry sump design is inherently more complex and expensive.

Fsport416

Im hopping the research and development made on the RCF GT3 will trickle its way down to production cars in the near future. Maybe they might slip this engine into the RCF/ISF "wink wink". 😉