Physics Fighter

Lexus Has Slashed 65kg From The Rc F And Prepared It For Track Duty. But Can This Big, Atmo V8 Really Play With Gt3s?

- Dylan Campbell

TRADITIONALLY WHEN you think of a track car, you imagine something low and squat to the ground, covered in carbon fibre, riding on sticky track tyres, with a clear and uninterrupted exhaust note and rocks audibly tickling the underbody in lieu of sound deadening being removed. Fixed-back bucket seats, Alcantara in excess, perhaps a half-cage and adjustable suspension. And, if you’re really lucky, maybe some choice vents, some springy Lexan windows, a giant fixed rear wing and perhaps a jutting front lip.

Clearly, Lexus has been reading How To Make A Track Car For Dummies. As part of a facelift for its RC Coupe, it has created this – the RC F Track Edition, channelling a bit of GT3 car here, GT500 racer there, to create the quickest Lexus since the fabled LFA. And a somewhat brave creation, as the RC F has until now not really been a car you itch to take on a racetrack, unless you might like the sound of saddling up a rhino and trying to ride it through an equestrian course.

Before we get to the Track Edition treatment, a refresher on the RC itself. Make no bones about it, this is an old car underneath and with this facelift, Lexus has popped it in the microwave for another 90 seconds. Parts of the RC platform – which is a current GS front and a current IS rear bolted together with the mid-section of the old IS – date back to 2005. Same is true of myriad other components including the eight-speed automatic transmission, but one bit we’d be happy to have around for another 12 years would be that engine. Yes, the 2UR-GSE 5.0litre, all-alloy naturally aspirated V8 might date back to the IS F’s debut in 2007, but what’s the saying, if it ain’t broke?