Akio Toyoda, the incoming president of Toyota and the grandson of the company’s founder, Kiichiro Toyoda, will be one of four drivers piloting a prototype Lexus LF-A sports car during 24 Hours of the Nürburgring in late May, reports The Associated Press. This will be the second straight year in the endurance race along Germany’s most famous track for both the LF-A and Mr. Toyoda, though it’s the first time they have run together.
The two-seat LF-A sports car first appeared as a concept at the 2005 Detroit auto show, and prototypes have been spied several times testing on the Nürburgring since then. Built around front mid-engine principles (which position the engine behind the front wheels), the all-wheel drive LF-A is expected to enter regular production during 2010 or 2011 with power coming from a V-10 engine making more than 500 horsepower and a price tag well over $200,000. A hybrid version is also expected.
Two identical prototype LF-A’s are likely to show up at Nürburgring competing in the Division 2 SP8 (near-production) class. Powered by 5.0-liter V-10 engines producing about 495-horsepower, the racing LF-A’s are being used by Toyota to test such systems as the rear-mounted, paddle-shifted, sequential-manual gearbox and to fine-tune the car aerodynamically. Last year the sole competing LF-A crashed during practice, suffered a particularly smoky oil leak during the race and completed a total of 106 laps for a seventh place finish in its class and 121st overall.
Both cars will run for Gazoo Racing – Gazoo.com being a Web site founded by Mr. Toyoda in 1996 that markets used Toyotas in Japan.
Mr. Toyoda, 52, drove a modified Lexus IS 300 sedan during last year’s Nürburgring race and, by the standards of future corporate titans, acquitted himself well (he didn’t wreck). Well known as a diehard gearhead, Mr. Toyoda has been spotted driving LF-A prototypes at various tracks in Japan and regularly joins Toyota’s test drivers to sample both Toyota’s and its competitors’ products.
Partly educated in America, Mr. Toyoda has a reputation for being, for a Japanese executive, accessible and comfortably informal. So how long will it be until he shows up at Daytona in a Nascar Camry?
source: wheels.blogs.nytimes
