#TBT: How Team Lexus started road racing with two-ton monsters

Ready to race, with a driver strapped in, it weighs nearly two tons. The all-steel body covers a substantial roll cage that not only protects the driver, but stiffens the structure of the car. Its V8 engine propels it from rest to 60 mph in less than six seconds.

Level with us–you’re thinking NASCAR, aren’t you? You just know that there’s an Earnhardt, Elliott or Petty strapped behind the wheel of this beast. Well, you’re wrong.

Here are a few more hints: This car has a five-speed transmission–a five-speed automatic transmission. It also has a power tilt and telescopic steering column, as well as power windows. Got it yet?

Okay, we won’t let you suffer anymore. The unlikely combination of equipment and features we just described can be found on a most unlikely race car indeed: the Lexus GS 400 cars that Team Lexus campaigns in the Motorola Cup North American Street Stock Championship.

While the average entry in the Sport Touring class of Motorola Cup has four or six cylinders driving the front wheels through a manual transmission, Chuck Goldsborough had to go one better. He put together some of Lexus’ flagships–powered by 300-horsepower V8 engines, complete with their five-speed autoboxes–and went racing. He affectionately refers to the cars as his taxi cabs.

While the GS 400 certainly overpowers the cars that make up the bulk of the action in the Sport Touring class–like the Integra Type R, Audi A4 and BMW 325–the fact that those 300 horses are carrying more than 3600 pounds keeps the big Lexuses from simply running away.

And they certainly make conspicuous getaway cars. When Team Lexus’ behemoths roll onto the grid, they dwarf everything else in the class. The team relies on this intimidating size to spook opponents unwise enough to glance in their rearview mirrors when the GS 400 approaches from behind.

Under their expansive skin, the GS 400s are pretty straightforward Motorola Cup racers. The interiors have been stripped of all the nonessential equipment that the rules allow to be yanked. In this case, the dash is the only recognizable piece provided by the nice Lexus factory people. The rest of the interior is all race, with tubes from the heavily-crossbraced roll cage filling the space that once contained the scent of expensive Japanese leather.

Under the hood, a stock powerplant pushes these beasts to the front of the pack. The Lexus team hopes to do some engine development as soon as time allows, but for now, both race cars still have their original, untouched engines. The team figures that the open exhausts allowed under the rules frees up a little extra power, with the cars producing about 15 or 20 more horsepower than stock.

Photo by David S. Wallens

Directing all that power, as we said before, is the stock Lexus five-speed automatic transmission. This part of the equation has proven to be one of the tougher workarounds that the team has encountered. Automatics are certainly not the ideal setup for road racing, but the team, with help from Level 10 Performance Transmission Systems of Hamburg, New Jersey, has done their best to make them functional in this venue.

The stock shift pattern has slots where all five forward gears can be manually selected, so that was a good thing from the start. The transmission would still upshift and downshift on its own from whatever slot the shift lever was left in, however, based on load and throttle position. The current solution involves some reprogramming of the transmission control computer to delay the shifts.

Upshifting is still done automatically–provided the driver slots the gear shift into the next higher slot sometime before redline, a few blips south of the rev limiter. Downshifting is done the same way: Just slot the shift lever into the gear you want to be in as you exit the corner, and the transmission downshifts when engine speed allows it.

The system works pretty well, and the drivers haven’t had much trouble adjusting to it, although some “between gears” corners can still be a headache. The transmission will still downshift on its own if it senses the need, so when the car is trying to exit a corner in what it feels is too high a gear, it will jump down on its own.

Racing also places extremely high heat demands on automatic transmissions. So high, in this case, that the cars were destroying transmissions with shocking regularity. The problem was traced to a simple plastic thrust washer that was failing under the extreme heat loads, allowing the gear packs to move in the case during shifts. A brass washer was substituted, and for about a buck, Team Lexus now has perfectly-reliable transmissions.

Photo by David S. Wallens

Underneath the car, coil-over, triple-adjustable shocks hold everything up, and the suspension pieces are connected to the chassis by a combination of polyurethane bushings, Heim joints and aluminum bushings. All of the suspension components are furnished by a European company called Pro Trac.

Lightweight, forged aluminum wheels are supplied by Complete Custom Wheel and measure 16x9 inches. Hoosier provides the spec tire for Motorola Cup, and the powers that be limit Team Lexus to a 245/50-16 or 245/50-17 tire.

Despite the narrow tires, finicky automatics and circle-track heft, so far Team Lexus is having a very successful 2000 season. As or this writing, team driver Chris Gleason is tied for the lead in the class driver’s standings, Team Lexus is tied for third in the class team standings, and Lexus is third in manufacturers points. That second place is even more impressive when you consider that there are only two Lexus entries competing against makes with as many as seven or eight cars representing them in the class.

We recently got a chance to slip behind the wheel of one of these monster machines to find out firsthand what a front-running Motorola Cup racer feels like. What it feels like is the most bad-ass Improved Touring car you can imagine.

Motorola Cup rules are nearly identical to IT rules as far as allowable modifications. The big difference lies in the preparation. While most IT guys can’t afford to have a full-time engineer, many Motorola Cup teams are made up of dedicated professionals who put food on their tables by making these cars go fast.

Thanks to these dedicated professionals, that 3600-pound Lexus GS 400 now feels like a 2400-pound Civic. Okay, maybe that’s a little bit exaggerated, but these cars certainly belie their size with unexpected nimbleness. Once you get used to the transmission (which is really pretty easy to do), it’s easy to throw the car around, and it seems to have few, if any, bad handling traits.

Of course, these are 3600-pound cars, so they don’t exactly change directions on a dime. However. turn-in is nice and linear, if not razor sharp. And if you do get one of these monsters out of shape, the Hoosier RS302 tires do a pretty good job of letting you know what’s going on underneath, and allowing you to gather it up with minimal fuss.

Brakes are excellent as well, with the stock Lexus ABS system providing just enough pedal pulse to let you know it’s working without upsetting the balance of the car too much.

Two or three years ago. the notion of a Lexus race car probably sounded pretty silly. Now. having spent some time with Team Lexus, we wonder why we all waited so long.

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