Team Lexus IS 300

The windshield explodes in a shower of glass. Then the roof buckles. The Team Lexus IS 300 creaks and groans on the seven-post jig like a prisoner on the Inquisitor's rack.

"This can't be doing the car any good," muses Chuck Goldsborough, owner of Team Lexus. Wrong. This chassis flex analysis finds the weak spots in the factory IS 300 unibody. The results are then analyzed by a CAD/CAM program that suggests where bracing would be needed for the car to stand up to the rigors of racing.

With computer-ordered plans in hand, Goldsborough and crew repair the damage and install the braces, which add an additional 118 lbs to the car. With the cage in place, the IS 300's structural rigidity approaches that of a tube-framed Winston Cup stock car.

This is how serious Lexus is taking its first true, factory- backed road racing program.

Unlike the usual street stock racers, which are little more than new cars with a roll cage and fire extinguisher, the Team Lexus IS 300 is stripped and beefed up. The cars compete in the street car-based Sport Touring category of the Grand American Road Racing Series, and have scored victories in their first year of competition, winning the race at Virginia International Raceway against a horde of well-developed competitors like the Acura Integra Type R. With the final event postponed, as of press time, the team managed to hold a respectable third in the season's overall points standings.

With so much success in the team's first year of competition with the IS 300s, we decided to take a closer look at the cars. Heck, they even let us drive one.

Inside and Out
Unlike most racecars, the Lexus' doors open, though the side impact bars obstruct the opening a bit. The bars are 8 inches lower than normal, which makes room for quick driver changes without eliminating all protection from T-bone crashes. In fact, the bars line up with the bumper height on other racecars and put the protection right where it's needed most.

The small, suede-covered Momo steering wheel mounts on a quick release hub, in case the tilt column doesn't move the wheel far enough out of the way. A Motec racing dash replaces the instrument panel, providing a bar-graph-style analog LCD tach, along with digital readings for engine parameters and lap timer for the driver.

Much of the stock dashboard is intact, reinforcing the IS 300's street car illusion. A panel for the master power switch replaces the left air conditioning vent. It's a ground disconnect kill switch, so if the car is upside down and dribbling race fuel up the driver's leg, he can kill all electrical power. It's located near the window, so a safety worker can switch it off if the driver can't.

On the right side of the steering wheel, where the stereo and HVAC controls should be, is a row of toggle switches for the engine ignition, headlights, wipers and other circuits. The nearest switch is a rubber-covered pushbutton. Switch the main power on, flick the ignition switch and hit the starter button to fire up the inline six.

The spartan, painted-metal interior is immaculate, with space only for the driver's seat and a tangle of roll bars, which are welded to large gusset plates in the unibody and extend to the rear shock towers. A large brace is welded to each tower, providing proper anchoring for the rear portion of the car and giving the rear suspension a stable platform.