Future Lexus RC Will be a Race Car in Street Clothing

• The RC GT3 race car and the production car will be developed side-by-side.

• The current Lexus RC has had negligible success in showrooms and racetracks.

The old adage that says “win on Sunday, sell on Monday” could have helped the current generation Lexus RC sell better, at least that’s what Toyota seems to be saying. Their plan for the new RC will be to in fact develop the GT3 race version alongside the streetcar.

In a nutshell, the Lexus RC, introduced in 2014, was not initially conceived as a race car. When the time came to convert the car for track use, its weight and lesser dynamics hampered on-track performance.

“What we’ve all come to learn is that’s not the way you bring a GT3 car to market,” Toyota Racing Development president David Wilson explained to Car and Driver. “Before you put your first line on paper, you decide you’re going to race that car and that shapes the design parameters, the performance parameters of that production car.”

The new Lexus RC should therefore be inspired by the Toyota GR GT3 concept that was revealed at the Tokyo Auto Salon. Toyota’s Gazoo Racing division is working on a running prototype. The final production version should be motivated by a hybrid powertrain when it launches in the near future.