Lexus on Sunday announced plans to enter the 2020 24 Hours of Nürburgring with an LC coupe fielded by Gazoo Racing, the official motorsport department of Lexus and Toyota.
This will be the third year year in a row that Gazoo fields the LC in the grueling German race, though this time around there will be a number of new technologies added to the car, including a new twin-turbocharged V-8.
All Lexus said about the engine is that it is destined for future road-going models, with “sports cars” specifically mentioned. The first application is expected to be an LC F, a prototype for which was spotted over a year ago.
Rumors point to the engine featuring a 4.0-liter displacement derived from a pair of Lexus' 2.0-liter inline-4s sharing a common crank and angled at 90 degrees. Lexus' current 5.0-liter V-8 generates 471 horsepower in the LC 500 but the new twin-turbo mill is expected to bring over 600 hp in the LC F.
The 2020 24 Hours of Nürburgring runs the weekend starting May 21. The specially prepared LC will be entered in the SP 9 class for production-based cars with high-displacement engines and doing the driving will be Hiroaki Ishiura, Masahiro Sasaki, Kazuya Oshima and Naoya Gamo.
