Lexus announced their official contender for this year’s Pikes Peak International Hill Climb. It’s a production-based Lexus RC F GT Concept driven by Justin Bell in the Time Attack class, hoping to do better than the company’s previous effort, the IS F CCS-R.
Entering Lexus RC F GT Concept into the 2015 Pikes Peak is part of a substantial program to build a proper motorsport career for this car. Lexus will soon go GT3 racing with the RC F and events like this serve as a good warmup and testing ground for the V8-powered racing machine.
The RC F GT is about 800 lbs lighter than the street version but features the same engine and transmission as the production RC F, albeit with a few adjustments to cope with the environment. That means Justing Bell has 470 horsepower and an 8-speed automatic with manual shifting mode at his disposal to navigate the 12.42 mile, 156 turn course in a respectable time. Seems like a tall order, but Bell is a fine driver.
“With very little time behind the wheel, the RC F GT Concept has already proven fast and easy to drive, very much like the production models, actually. We expect the race car will only pick up pace as we engage more testing, tuning, and data acquisition on the mountain.” said Bell.
