The Scion FR-S->ke3820 wouldn't be your first pick for most types of endurance racing.->ke447 It could never match the speed of the other cars at Le Mans,->ke1591 and neither could it handle the terrain of Dakar or the Baja 1000. But the One Lap Of America event, which has much more to do with driver skill than who has the fastest car, is actually a pretty good fit for the car. So Toyota->ke88 is sending engineers Anthony Magagnoli and Stephen Byington with a specially prepared FR-S to this year's event.

The One Lap of America is the slightly more sane and significantly more legal version of the Cannonball Run (the real one, not the movie) coast-to-coast race of the early '70s. That race was started by Car and Driver's Brock Yates, and it is Brock Yates Jr. who runs the One Lap. The event is held in rally-like->ke191 stages, with penalties for being either over or under time. Additional events are held at race tracks along the way and the cars end up covering more than 4,000 miles in seven days. It might not have the speed of Le Mans, but it does allow us to see what more mainstream sports cars->ke506 can handle.

Continue reading to learn more about One Lap of America Endurance Race.

Why it matters

In some ways, the One Lap of America is like the 24 Hours of Le Mans used to be in its first years. The participants drive mainstream cars instead of specifically built prototypes, basically doing potential customers a big favor by testing the cars in a 4,000-mile road race.

What's equally interesting here is that Toyota is sending two of its engineers to compete in this year's event and likely gather data for future updates or even new products altogether. Needless to say, it seems not all Toyota engineers are assigned to work on boring 2015 Sienna minivans, Camrys and Corollas.

Scion FR-S

Read our full review here.