Here's my thinking: Instead of entering the Toyota TS040 Hybrid in 24h of LeMans, call it a Lexus! I doubt anyone with a Camry or a Prius will give two hoots about LeMans if they are even aware of it and as Lexus has (according to Akio Toyoda) "no heritage" and "no narrative", entering Lexus hybrid race car to compete with Audi and Porsche will give them both! Lexus needs to get serious about matching their key competition and giving us F Sport owners a shot of emotion.

 

They do, it's called F

 

I'm not disputing great cars, only that it would be good to see Lexus vs. Audi and Porsche at leMans rather than cheering for Toyota. It's kinda like running a car as a Chevrolet or even General Motors instead of a Corvette.

 

Well that was the plan for RC-F GT3 anyway, in 2016 It was supposed to run in GT or GT+ category but then talks to unify GTE and GT3 fell through.

 

I was just making light. I understand what you mean

Quite frankly all it would take is a livery change

 

I suspect if Toyota wins Le Mans and the overall WEC series, Lexus could well enter LMP1 in the next 1-2 years, kind of like VW only put Porsche into LMP1 ONLY after Audi had established a winning track record in LMP1.

 

Sounds like a promising start.

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/m...g-9534496.html

Le Mans 2014: Toyota seal pole for Le Mans 24 Hours as Kasuki Nakajima triumphs in heavily disrupted qualifying

Kazuki Nakajima's Toyota No. 7 took pole position at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, giving the Japanese manufacturer a head start in its bid for a first win in the famed endurance race.

Nakajima became the first Japanese driver to set the fastest time in qualifying at Le Mans, clocking 3 minutes, 21.789 seconds on Thursday on the 13-kilometer (eight-mile) circuit. Toyota's chances look good as Sebastien Buemi's Toyota No. 8 will start from third on the grid.

In its return to Le Mans after a 16-year absence in the top category, Porsche will start from second and fourth. At the wheel of Porsche No. 14, Romain Dumas set the second best time, 0.357 off the pace.

Audi showed a lack of pace in qualifying. Its three cars will start from fifth, sixth and seventh. The No 1 car that suffered such extensive damage in a crash on Wednesday when Loic Duval experienced an airborne collision with the barrier was rebuilt in time to feature in qualifying, but suffered another crash that hampered it's running in the afternoon session.

Loic Duval suffered a heavy accident in practice for the Le Mans 24 hours Loic Duval suffered a heavy accident in practice for the Le Mans 24 hours Duval has not been cleared to race despite escaping with grazes to his leg, and has been replaced by Audi test driver Marc Gene, who was due to race for the Jota LMP2 team. Oliver Turvey has been called-up to replace Gene as a result.

 

That is not a correct representation of a VW strategy. Porsche entered the LMP1 class this year as their own initiative - which was approved by VW. If VW had vetoed it because of Audi, Porsche would have entered F1 instead. Porsche has a reputation of racing in general and at Le Mans that goes to their origin as a sports car maker in the late 40s / early 50s and they wish to continue that.

Audi has mostly dominated LMP1 since 2000, but Porsche did not merge with VW until 2011.

 

That's too bad, because I think that is exactly what Lexus should do: Create a GT version of the RC F that is tuned for performance and not luxury and sell about 500 as exclusive, high-performance RC F GT cars.

They could then homologate the "RC F GT" for factory-team entries in the FIA WEC LMGTE-Pro and IMSA USCC GTLM classes and could also sell the race-prep'd GT cars to other Pro and Amateur customer teams for entry in the USCC and WEC GT classes (Pro and Am).

As a fan, I find the GT classes more interesting than the Prototype classes because the cars are much closer to what you can buy in a show room. It's fun to watch the Austin Martin Vantage V8, Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, SRT Viper GTS-R, Corvette C7.R, BMW Z4 GTE, and Ferrari 458 Italia cars duke it out for 24 hours in either the European WEC or US USCC races.

Where's Lexus?

Pix are from the IMSA USCC Race a Laguna Seca in May 2014. Some of these teams will be at Le Mans this weekend.

 

I have to agree that Lexus is WAY behind in racing period. You rarely ever see them ....EVER and if you do its always some temporary fluke program that is only running in one race. I am happy with the spark of the F brand ( I love my ISF) but we still need more. The ISF CCSR should be out there in some form, and the RCF would help open up the mark to some exposure if they would enter GT3 with it. Sounds like its not happening

 

Toyota was so close

 

It was their own fault really. You need 3 cars to have the best chance at winning Le Mans. Its frustrating because TMG clearly knows this, yet the bean counters wouldn't give them enough of a budget to do this. Within the first 2hrs of this race they were basically down to 1 car and that car eventually retired. This was their best chance, the rules favoured them on Balance of Performance and they had the fastest car. Its only going to get more difficult next year with more manufacturers entering the ring.