Lexus

The Toyota GT-86 gets upstaged by the Lexus LFA at Drift Event

By Ryan Konko

Posted on January 16, 2012

Two new Japanese rear-wheel drive sports cars bare it all.

There has been much hype and speculation surrounding the development of the Toyota GT-86. For years, Toyota has been parading around the car, showing off a number of different concepts and changing the names. Call it the FT-86, Scion FR-S, or Subaru BRZ, it’s still an inexpensive, rear-wheel drive sports car that has enthusiasts everywhere begging for a test drive.

Shorty after Toyota finally unveiled the production car, a few examples made their way around the world at numerous events, car shows, and exhibits to stir up interest. At a recent drift event in Japan, the Toyota GT-86 was drifting with its ancestor, the Toyota AE86, burning up rubber around a series of turns.

The crowd was buzzing with excitement about the new Toyota, until it’s older, yet-to-be-released older brother showed up and stole the show. Seemingly out of nowhere, a Lexus LFA Roadster showed up and started lighting up the rear tires with its 552 horsepower V-10 engine. Now, this could be one of Toyota’s grassroots marketing tactics to gauge interest with a roadster variant of the Lexus LFA, or it could be a one-off customer job.

Our guess is that this is most likely a Lexus-backed LFA Roadster. Most super cars already have a roadster variant, and back in 2008, Lexus debuted the LFA Roadster concept car and paraded it from auto show to auto show around the world. The car will most likely be built in limited numbers with a large price tag and sport the same V-10 powerplant. Stay tuned for updates!