If you cast your mind back to this year’s Tokyo Auto Salon, you might remember Dino’s Spotlight on a new contender for the 2015 D1 Grand Prix championship crown – the OTG Motorsports Lexus LFA.
Built by Osaka Toyopet Group – which owns a large number of Toyota dealerships in Japan’s Kansai region – nothing like this exercise in excess has ever been seen in the ranks of D1GP before. And with Youichi Imamura at the wheel – a driver best known for his 2003 D1GP series win in the A’PEXi FD3S Mazda RX-7 – OTG are mounting a serious challenge.
While the LFA was still V10 powered at TAS in January, rumour had it that a Toyota Racing Development NASCAR-spec V8 could well be finds its way into the supercar chassis before the season kicked off. Now, with D1GP’s ‘Tokyo Drift’ opening round and exhibition match in Odaiba just weeks away, all has been revealed in the short shakedown video below.
The clip’s quality isn’t the best, but it’s enough to confirm that Imamura’s Lexus will indeed be going into battle with a couple of cylinders less than what it left the factory with. While there’s no discounting the Toyota factory V8 race motor – Fredric Aasbø’s RS-R Toyota 86 is testament to that – we can only imagine how cool a V10-based package might have been…
And on that thought, what you do think? Is the TRD engine a justifiable swap, or should OTG have stayed true to the LFA’s roots?
Brad Lord
brad@speedhunters.com
Photo by Dino Dalle Carbonare