Remember the GR GT3 Concept? We do. It debuted at the Tokyo Auto Salon in January 2022 as a preview of the successor to the aging Lexus RC F GT3. It won’t officially race until the 2026 season, but a camouflaged prototype has now been spotted in Belgium. The sleek, powerful Toyota was seen in action on the wet Spa-Francorchamps track.
The GR GT3 has previously been filmed testing in Japan at the Motegi track as well as Toyota’s Fuji Speedway. Now it’s landed in Europe with a massive rear wing and wide hips. To get an idea of what’s hiding beneath the guise, we’ve attached a concept image at the bottom of this page.
A little rain didn’t stop the test driver from putting his race car through its paces on the challenging 4.3-mile circuit. The GR GT3 is relevant for another equally important reason: it will spawn a Lexus road-legal version. This isn’t hearsay, it’s fact. About a year ago, Toyota WEC team director Rob Leupe told our sister site Motorsport.com:
“Date [2026] “In line with the road car side, which follows Toyota's philosophy of having a race car on the road. That continues today.” When asked if the car would have a Lexus badge, Leupe said: “At the moment, it looks like it. It depends on how it develops within Toyota, but at the moment, yes.”
Lexus or Toyota, the important thing here is that there will be a license plate on the new sports car. The car will likely be powered by a big V-8 engine, judging by the throaty exhaust note. Motor sports reported the racing version was supposed to debut in the 2025 season but was delayed by a year due to obstacles in developing a road-legal car. It has been two and a half years since the concept debuted.
In February 2024, Toyota Racing Development President David Wilson said SportsCar365 that “timeline [for the car’s launch] It's still around 2026, and development is going well. Homologation has to be done and there are a lot of steps involved. Everything is going according to plan, but you have to give yourself a little bit of leeway.”
Wilson suggested a racing debut could come at the 2026 Daytona 24 Hours. Hopefully, we'll see a road-going model sooner rather than later.
