During the Nürburgring 24 Hours this past weekend, staff from Automobile magazine happened to be at the right place at the right time. Using the famous endurance race to make its first official appearance in public as well as extract valuable live racing data for development purposes, the Lexus LF-A got caught with its hood up.
Despite very few details being visible, the chaps at Autoblog.com have noticed a few tidbits. Looking long enough to be a V10, as previously speculated, both cylinder banks seem to sit 90 degrees apart. Further evidence which seem to confirm the V10 configuration can be seen in the large BMW looking plastic intake plenum which sits on top. Their are seam lines in the plastic which show 8 square chambers inside the plenum. Since the rear of the plenum extends underneath the cowl rain drip panel, there are possibly two more chambers which we cannot see. Meanwhile the engine sits far back immediately in front of the cowl panel which places its center of gravity well behind the front axle making it a front mid-engine layout. Hopefully, now that we have had a good look at the car in action, the production version of the LF-A will make show up in Paris in September.
Lexus LF-A Engine Spied at Nürburgring 24 Hours
Automobile magazine / Lexus LF-A race car engine
By Brian Potter
May 27, 2008 6:00 PM
Filed Under: Japanese, Lexus, Motorsport, Spy Photos
Comments
xenomorph
May 27, 2008 8:49 PM
Interesting that Toyota... I mean Lexus, claimed that the LF-A was faster than a Porsche around the Nurburgring and now after the race, Porsche has won and the LF-A has come 134th (is that last?). Even the Volkswagen Scirrocco came 11th. LOL, it got beaten by a hatchback! Fail.
TRDartz
May 28, 2008 1:12 AM
well. Toyota is using a prototype production car to race in a grid full of purpose built racing cars. Also note that actual racing is different from doing a few laps solo around a circuit. In actual racing a lot has to do with how the driver and how s/he handles race traffic. It is also possible that Toyota did not want to break the car as it is still a one off prototype mainly used for testing purposes.
xenomorph
May 28, 2008 8:54 AM
Thats very true, I was being a bit malicious. I'm sure this will be a great car when it is produced, the only thing I worry about it is if it gets the same gearbox setup as in the IS-F. Where it constantly beeps when the revs go high or you want to shift down. Then again I'm sure there is some way to turn it off and if it gets a DSG like gearbox that would still be really good. Lets hope it gets the LED design in the headlights and taillights such as in the concept car.
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