A Petit Le Mans class win last fall. Two Rolex 24 podium finishes, including this year. An IMSA Sprint Cup championship in 2020. Lexus is no slouch in GT3 racing.
“Lexus, a 33-year-old brand in the United States, has built its reputation on quality, durability, reliability and experience,” said Vinay Shahani, Vice President, Lexus Marketing. “Where we don’t get enough credit …
“One thing that Toyota is great for is we don’t tend to rush and hurry things,” Bal said. “We are meticulous in how we bring things to market. We want the [new GT3] car tomorrow. But, we’re taking our time.”
This kind of reminds me of the amount of time and effort that went into developing the LFA.
Wasn't there a story that Lexus went back to the drawing board for a few years because they didn't like how the exhaust sounded or something like that?
In reply to Colin Wood :
The LFA began development in the early 2000s. It launched with the 2011 model year. Yes, Lexus definitely takes a methodical approach.
I think with the LFA they designed the chassis in aluminum, and then far into the project switched to carbon and ended up making their own loom for that.
The part about Lexus racing with other luxury brands I can understand, make sense to have a Lexus in GT3 and Toyota with the Supra in GT4.
On the other hand, does racing still "sell on Sunday" ? Cadillac seems like they're still trying to get out of the geriatric image.
j_tso said:"sell on Sunday" ? Cadillac seems like they're still trying to get out of the geriatric image.
Yeah, I've been wondering why Cadillac decided to make a prototype instead of a GT3 / GT4 car that could actually relate to their road-going V models.
In reply to QuikMcshifterson :
Good question. (And I know a guy I should ask.)
But just guessing, maybe to run at the top rung. It doesn't look like a Cadillac that you can buy, but it still says Cadillac on it.
QuikMcshifterson said:j_tso said:"sell on Sunday" ? Cadillac seems like they're still trying to get out of the geriatric image.
Yeah, I've been wondering why Cadillac decided to make a prototype instead of a GT3 / GT4 car that could actually relate to their road-going V models.
The same reason it took them FOREVER to introduce a customer GT3 version of the Corvette: Because GM doesn't want to compete against themselves on track. Also, with a locked-down factory effort with no customer competition, you control the product and the perception of the product from design to victory lane. There's no risk that some privateer in a customer car is ever going to win a race in your car and have a camera stuck in their face only to put a hat on that says "Who Farted?" with an arrow pointing down and holler "Hell yeah I did it for Dale!" before flipping off a national TV audience.*
(*should I ever win Daytona I promise I will do this I don't care if they keep the watch)
QuikMcshifterson said:j_tso said:"sell on Sunday" ? Cadillac seems like they're still trying to get out of the geriatric image.
Yeah, I've been wondering why Cadillac decided to make a prototype instead of a GT3 / GT4 car that could actually relate to their road-going V models.
Cause they already have corvette and camaro in those classes
David S. Wallens said:But just guessing, maybe to run at the top rung. It doesn't look like a Cadillac that you can buy, but it still says Cadillac on it.
I think Mazda said something along those lines about competing in DPi. They wanted to signal their move upmarket so they raced in the top class.
Surely their next car will be an LC500? They're debuting the LC500h in the top GT500 class in Super GT this year, but plan on doing a GT300 (which is a mildly customized set of GT3 regs) Lexus next year.
Update:
GTD Pro Manufacturers champion
Driver and team titles.
Not too shabby for the oldest car in the field.
JG Pasterjak said:QuikMcshifterson said:j_tso said:"sell on Sunday" ? Cadillac seems like they're still trying to get out of the geriatric image.
Yeah, I've been wondering why Cadillac decided to make a prototype instead of a GT3 / GT4 car that could actually relate to their road-going V models.
The same reason it took them FOREVER to introduce a customer GT3 version of the Corvette: Because GM doesn't want to compete against themselves on track. Also, with a locked-down factory effort with no customer competition, you control the product and the perception of the product from design to victory lane. There's no risk that some privateer in a customer car is ever going to win a race in your car and have a camera stuck in their face only to put a hat on that says "Who Farted?" with an arrow pointing down and holler "Hell yeah I did it for Dale!" before flipping off a national TV audience.*
(*should I ever win Daytona I promise I will do this I don't care if they keep the watch)
so, how much does it cost to win at Daytona? asking for a friend.
In reply to AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) :
How much you got?
They only needed to start the race to win the season title, but I got ot watch the whole front end of that #14 car go POOF after hitting a sign outside the turn 3 curb. It was driving on track like this without the clam shell.
Cadillac had a GT-3 car, back when it was a Corvette body on the DPi chassis. They ran in Pirelli World Challenge, and won a lot, even after the SRO penalized them heavily for three years and finally ran them off.
I think Johnny O'Connell had four straight championships.
In reply to racerfink :
Those were such cool cars.
I gotta give credit to David Wilson, TRD President, for a level of candor rarely seen in interviews today.
J.A. Ackley, if you got the quotes out of him talking about how rugged the Porches are (and the Lexus aren't) and how effective the Ferrari is due to its modularity, that's some very well-done journalism right there.
Much better than the usual mayonnaise!
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