The Japanese automaker Toyota will bring a handful of their remarkable racing cars to the Goodwood Festival of Speed, July 3-5. The three day event is Europe’s answer to Monterey Historic Races that take place every year at Laguna Seca. The event allows racing enthusiasts to get an up close look at everything from classic competition cars to the racecars of tomorrow and allows these machines the opportunity to do what it is that they do best when they race against the clock and the hill.

The sombrero wearing import carmaker will be showing off a Lexus LF-A super car and a TF108, last year’s unrestricted F1 car complete with the German Timo Glock behind the controls. Making almost as much power as the F1 machine, Toyota will also bring a four wheel drive Celica GT4-X developed by English based tuners Fensport. The Celica makes 700 HP and can make consistent 10 second quarter mile passes all day long.

Rally enthusiasts will be happy to know that their will be a pair of classic Group B Celicas as well as the car that won them the Manufacturer’s Championship in 1999, a WRC Corolla. Alain Prost’s championship ice racing Toyota Auris will also be on hand, the car is built to look like the compact city car, except the racecar is built from carbon fiber and features a tuned 3.0 Liter V6. There will also be a couple of Can-Am and Le Mans racers on hand as well.

However, it will be Gazoo Racing’s V10-powered Lexus LF-A endurance racer, coming straight from competing in the Nurburgring 24, along with an IS-F that competed in the same race twice around the clock, that will be one of the main attractions on the hill climb course, making an appearance at the Earl of March’s annual gathering.

Press release after the jump.

Toyota is preparing a strong showing at the 2009 Goodwood Festival of Speed originally appeared on topspeed.com on Monday, 22 June 2009 22:00 EST.

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It is no secret that Subaru Impreza WRX STI is a great performance car being offered by the Japanese manufacturer for a great price. With the company’s recent withdrawal from World Rally Championship competition and absence from the Super GT Japanese racing series, the STI is having a hard time finding a place to shine. So the performance arm of Fuji Heavy Industries, Subaru Tecnica International, have set out to show the world just how good a car they can make, by building a full on race vehicle out of their factory hot rod.

While most manufacturers test on the Nurburgring, Subaru is sending their car off to the Nordschleife to compete in a 24 hour endurance battle at the Green Hell alongside super cars like the Lexus LF-A, but will compete in the SP3 class with other turbocharged cars that displace 2.0 Liters. This STI’s drivers will not only have to compete against the other entrants in the German race twice around the clock, the ‘Ring itself is a formidable opponent. It is a competitor that will rip you off line and send you flying through the air at 100 MPH in the blink of an eye.

This race spec STI was the result of a concentrated effort of the Japanese racing engineers, have a look at their hard work.

Video: STI built Subaru Impreza for the Nurburgring 24 originally appeared on topspeed.com on Monday, 1 June 2009 19:00 EST.

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The German sports car manufacturer Porsche has a long history of winning endurance races, adding to their historic success, the team of Manthey Racing brought home the fourth consecutive win at the Nürburgring 24 hour race. Thanks to drivers Timo Bernhard and Marc Lieb from Germany, the Frenchman Romain Dumas and Marcel Tiemann from Monaco; the yellow and green Porsche 911 GT3 RSR making 480 naturally aspirated horse power finished the race one entire lap ahead of the nearest competitor, an Audi R8 GT3. If you are thinking, what’s in a lap? Well, one lap around the 12.9 mile Green Hell consists of 33 left turns and 40 right hand ones; and that is after 24 hours of nonstop racing.

Press release after the jump.

Fourth overall victory for Porsche at the Nürburgring 24 originally appeared on topspeed.com on Tuesday, 26 May 2009 12:00 EST.

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Team Vertu Racing wins its first race at Spa-Francorchamps originally appeared on topspeed.com on Wednesday, 1 August 2007 12:30 EST.

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