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Lexus LFA Code X class victor at Nurburgring 24 Hours

19 May, 2015

The penultimate modern-day hypercar, the Lexus LFA, has proven itself on the world’s most arduous track — the Lexus LFA Code X took a class victory at the Nurburgring 24 Hours over the weekend of May 16–17, finishing 18 laps ahead of its nearest rival.

The LFA Code X is a 5.3-litre V8-powered version of Lexus’s flagship model, and managed 147 laps of the Nurburgring in the 24-hour period, winning the SP-Pro class. The crew — comprising of Masahiki Kageyama, Hiroaki Ishiura, Kazuya Oshima, and Takuto Iguchi — finished 14th overall.

The Lexus’s success could have been twofold, with a Lexus IS-F finishing runner-up in the SP8 class, only one lap behind the class winner.

And in the SP3T class, a two-litre turbo Lexus RC placed fourth after completing 122 laps, the same number as the class’s second- and third-placed vehicles.

This year’s victory marks Lexus’s sixth class victory since 2012 in the Nurburgring 24 Hours race.

ROTARY CHIC

Kerry Bowman readily describes himself as a dyed-in-the-wool Citroën fan and a keen Citroën Car Club member. His Auckland home holds some of the chic French cars and many parts. He has also owned a number of examples of the marque as daily drivers, but he now drives a Birotor GS. They are rare, even in France, and this is a car which was not supposed to see the light of day outside France’s borders, yet somehow this one escaped the buyback to be one of the few survivors out in the world.
It’s a special car Kerry first saw while overseas in the ’70s, indulging an interest sparked early on by his father’s keenness for Citroëns back home in Tauranga. He was keen to see one ‘in the flesh’.
“I got interested in this Birotor when I bought a GS in Paris in 1972. I got in contact with Citroën Cars in Slough, and they got me an invitation to the Earls Court Motor Show where they had the first Birotor prototype on display. I said to a guy on the stand, ‘I’d like one of these,’ and he said I wouldn’t be allowed to get one. Citroën were building them for their own market to test them, and they were only left-hand drive.”

Tradie’s Choice

Clint Wheeler purchased this 1962 Holden FJ Panelvan as an unfinished project, or as he says “a complete basket case”. Collected as nothing more than a bare shell, the rotisserie-mounted and primed shell travelled the length of the country from the Rangiora garage where it had sat dormant for six years to Clint’s Ruakaka workshop. “Mike, the previous owner, was awesome. He stacked the van and parts nicely. I was pretty excited to get the van up north. We cut the locks and got her out to enjoy the northland sun,” says Clint. “The panelvan also came with boxes of assorted parts, some good, some not so good, but they all helped.”