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Lexus and Scott Pruett go racing with RC F GT3

Lexus will show what its RC F GT3 can do next year in the US when the racer will be hit the track with a newly formed team called F Performance Racing. Unfortunately, no one will say what series the coupe will compete in, but veteran racer Scott Pruett will be behind the wheel. As Lexus already teased, the RC F GT3 will feature a body with big flares and a huge wing. Under the heat extractors in the hood, there will be a production-derived 5.0-liter V8 with over 500 horsepower that will route through a six-speed sequential gearbox. Based on its current livery in eye-popping metallic blue, the coupe will also be one of the easiest cars to spot on the track. The sharply styled RC F might take too many checkered flags in its first season, though, because the team will keep the coupe to a limited schedule next year. Rather than scoring wins, the focus will be on developing the platform and gaining experience. However by the 2017 or 2018 season, there will be a multi-car effort with a full racing calendar. When taking on veteran teams fielding Porsches or Ferraris in the same class, a seasoned driver like Pruett will be an asset around a racecourse. He also already has close ties to the Japanese luxury brand after competing in Lexus-power prototypes in the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Championship Series and helping to develop the LFA. "I could not be more ecstatic to be representing Lexus as a performance brand ambassador and on the track in the F Performance RC F GT3," he said in the announcement. We look forward to seeing what he can do with it next year. Related Video: Lexus Partners with F Performance Racing for 2016 and Beyond Scott Pruett and Paul Gentilozzi form new team Multi-year team agreement Upcoming season focuses on vehicle development LAS VEGAS (Nov. 2, 2015) - Lexus today announced its motorsports partnership with Paul Gentilozzi and newly formed F Performance Racing to field the RC F GT3 in a soon to be announced sports car series. This new racing venture is part of the Lexus' global motorsports effort that will see the Japanese luxury brand competing on tracks in the United States beginning in 2016. The new race vehicle is based upon the production Lexus RC F high performance coupe that went on sale at the end of 2014.

Toyota to pay $17.35M federal fine for delayed Lexus RX recall

This summer, we brought you news that Lexus was recalling over 150,000 RX and RX hybrid crossovers tied to its massive pedal entrapment issue. An update to that story included word from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that it was considering launching a federal investigation into potential delays by the automaker in notifying owners about the problem. Now comes news that parent company Toyota will pay a hefty $17.35 million in fines for delaying its recall of the 2010 Lexus RX 350 and RX 450h. According to The Detroit News, the Japanese automaker is being forced to pay the maximum fine for delaying recalls - and this isn't the first time. In fact, this is the fourth time since 2010 that Toyota has been required to do so, including paying $48.8M in civil penalties in 2010 for failing to recall vehicles in a timely manner - in three separate campaigns.
In addition to the fines, Toyota has agreed to restructure the way it handles quality control and review "safety-related issues." Though the Japanese automaker has not admitted any wrongdoing, Toyota has agreed to meet with NHTSA for six months on the matter and may extend the meetings another six months.
US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood says he is counting on Toyota to improve its ability to address such safety issues: "With today's announcement, I expect Toyota to rigorously reinforce its commitment to adhering to the United States safety regulations," he said in a statement.

Genesis cars win accolades, offer value — so why are sales so bad?

My high-school buddy Brent Cormier was so smitten with the Genesis G80 when he saw it at an event I hosted at SXSW in 2016 he bought a used 2013 Hyundai Genesis a short time later and fell in love with the car. "It surpasses my every expectation," said Cormier, a self-described "renaissance man" who owns and runs a real estate agency with his wife Laura, is a food service executive chef and part owner of Austin-based Thin the Herd Guitars. "I was locked into Mercedes and Audi for 10 years," he added. "And felt trapped in an endless pit of maintenance costs." After owning the Genesis over the past two years — including using it as an Uber and Lyft driver to earn extra cash — Cormier learned what some frugal luxury sedan buyers and a handful of car reviewers have discovered: Genesis offers great bang for the buck compared to other premium brands and can compete with the best in terms of performance, features and comfort. Hyundai's luxury brand also earned a prominent third-party endorsement last week when for the first time Genesis topped J.D. Power's 2018 APEAL study, surpassing German luxury-performance icon Porsche. The APEAL study (which stands for Automotive Performance, Execution and Layout) "measures owners' emotional attachment and level of excitement across 77 attributes," ranging from performance to comfort, and asks nearly 68,000 owners of new 2018 models to score vehicles on a 1,000-point scale. In its second year ranked as a stand-alone brand, Genesis earned an APEAL score that bumped it up 15 points to 884 and helped push it past Porsche — and past BMW, Lincoln, Mercedes-Benz, Audi, Volvo, Cadillac, Land Rover and Lexus, in order of ranking. Last month, Genesis also topped J.D. Power's Initial Quality Survey (IQS) for the first time this year. And both its models were awarded Top Safety Pick Plus ratings by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, among 11 Plus ratings in all for Korean vehicles. Despite high J.D. Power rankings and great reviews, Genesis U.S. sales were off 50 percent for the first six months of 2018 compared to 2017, and in June Genesis sold only 796 vehicles — the first time U.S. numbers dropped below 1,000 in a month. Part of Genesis's APEAL and IQS success can be attributed to its small product lineup: just two models, the G80 and G90 sedans, with a third, the 2019 G70, launching later this year. And while those numbers may help in J.D.