As if that wasn’t enough, Iida was also the driver who piloted a Lexus LFA Nürburgring Edition around the Nordschleife in 7:14.64, which is all the more incredible when you realize that was achieved on the stock Bridgestone Potenza RE070 tires.
Recently, Iida posted the picture above, showing a mysterious LFA-based racer, to his Twitter account. If we had to venture a guess, we’d say this is the oft-rumored Lexus LFA GTE racer, which Iida will most likely drive in next year’s Le Mans series.
At a time when other racing series seem to be shrinking, endurance racing is growing in both popularity and manufacturer involvement. Aston Martin returned with a Vantage GTE racer this year, and Bentley announced it was working on a Continental GT-based race car, though its debut likely won’t occur before 2014.
Expect to see even more global participation in the future, too. On this side of the Atlantic, the Grand Am series and American Le Mans Series will merge in 2014, and there’s still talk of a global endurance series (combining Super GT, Le Mans, Grand Am and others) in 2015.
We’ll bring you confirmation as soon as we have it, but it’s a pretty safe bet that you’ll see this particular LFA run at Le Mans next year.