Endurance races are quite a spectacle if you are a motorsports fan. Even more so if they take place at the Mecca of tracks, the (in)famous Nürburgring circuit.
It’s the only place where you can see an Opel Manta or a Mercedes-Benz 190E finishing ahead of a Porsche 911 or a Lexus LFA. That’s because a lot of things can happen in endurance races and to cross the finish line of the Nordschleife is in itself, quite an achievement.
As we reported, Toyota decided to pull an LFA-like stunt and enter its new rear-wheel drive FT-86 coupe before launching the production version, in this past Saturday’s race at the track Jackie Stewart christened “the Green Hell”.
So how did the modern-day “hachiroku” do in its racing premier? It finished in 120th place, six laps behind the winning Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG. It also came out third in its class (SP3), which had only five entries, but on the other hand, it beat cars such as a BMW M3 and a Porsche 997 GT3 Cup.
Before you comment on the Toyota FT-86’s results, bear in mind that this was its first outing on the track and that the company’s intentions wasn’t to the race win but to give the car a thorough test on the Ring. The FT-86 did cross the finish line, which is probably what the Gazoo Racing team and Toyota intended after all.
