Mystery Toyota GT prototype continues testing: is a Nürburgring package on the way?
Whether it's a Toyota GT or the rumoured Lexus LFR, the prototypes we saw at Goodwood continue in extensive testing at the Nürburgring
Toyota is cooking up a super GT car to potentially take the place of the Lexus LC500 on the road and the Lexus RC F GT3 at Le Mans. Previewed by the GR GT3 concept of 2022, it’s still not known exactly when it’ll break cover. Two prototypes appeared at the 2025 Goodwood Festival of Speed as the car’s first public appearance (and Toyota’s first public acknowledgement of the program) and now a range of cars have been spotted testing at the Nürburgring. For now, we’re more sure of the presence of a V8 than we are about whether there will be a Toyota or a Lexus badge affixed to its snout.
The cars that have been spied testing are rumoured to be called LFR. Though that would be confusing if they debuted as Toyotas – they were previewed as such at Goodwood. Their latest appearance at the Nürburgring has revealed differing specs for various road versions, alongside the racer.
Three configurations are being tested with the rear wing the main differentiator. One car is without a wing, another a mid-level fixed swan-neck item (albeit running the same plate, so it could be the same car) and another, with a different registration plate, running a higher fixed swan-neck wing.
This could mean one of two things: either multiple specs of this GT/LFR are on the way a la the standard Lexus LFA and the Nürburgring Package, with varying road and track focus. Or these different wings are representative of the available positions of a movable item on the eventual production car, a la the active wing seen on the iconic LFA. Certainly, these wings look very bolt-on and not to production spec, lending credence to the latter theory.
Overall, visually, it can be best likened so far to a Japanese take on the Mercedes-AMG SLS or Dodge Viper: long bonnet (that we can now see is thrice vented), bluff snout, taut cockpit with a stubby tail. It’s certainly not quite as smooth-flowing or elegant as the Lexus LC, with more sporting pretence. At the front we can now see lighting, grilles and an overall face in keeping with Lexus’s most recent design direction. There are still very racey prominent air outlets and inlets, aft the front wheels, before the rear wheels and aft the cabin on the top surface.
At the rear there are prominent flanking vents, an aggressive diffuser and a quad exhaust system mounted within. Videos and their debut at the 2025 Festival of Speed revealed a V8 soundtrack coming from them. Whatever these prototypes become definitely won’t be electric.
A V8 GT car introduced in the late 2020s doesn’t quite compute legislatively, but Toyota Motor Company has previously been outspoken in its support for making internal combustion clean, rather than going all in on electric power. We also get our first proper look at the interior, though little is visible through all the disguise beyond a large angled infotainment screen, climate controls below it, a bepaddled steering wheel and a tall transmission tunnel.
The waters have always been muddy about what Toyota/Lexus’s next flagship GT will be. Back in 2022 Toyota revealed the GR GT3 Concept, which is visually very close to these prototypes. Meanwhile, the totally different Lexus Electrified Sport Concept was being touted as a preview of a flagship to come. Prototype testing of the SLS-alike super GT then began in short order in both road and race forms. Then in 2025, the Lexus Sport concept was revealed in California, totally unrelated to the Electrified Sport and still, to appearances, seemingly unrelated to the distinctive prototypes that continue to be seen testing.
Toyota and Lexus had denied all knowledge of the project until Goodwood Festival of Speed, and while details are still thin on the ground, rumours suggest that the racer may compete in the 2026 WEC and IMSA seasons, if not the 2027 seasons. What does that mean for a potential road car? Well, it’s not unheard of for the race version of a model to be permitted on track before the road car is in production. Nevertheless, a debut during the same model year as its racing introduction, for the road car, is most likely.
We sorely miss the LC500 and RC F and their ripsnorting V8s. A spiritual successor would be welcomed with open arms. The 2UR GSE V8 has found a new, if unlikely home, following the discontinuation of the V8 road cars, under the bonnet of the Toyota Supra that’s due to enter the Australian Supercars Championship.
