What you see here is the race version of the Toyota LF-A supercar that is expected to make its public debut by competing at Germany’s Nurburgring 24-hour race in May.

A toughened-up version of the Aston Martin/Porsche challenger that has been doing the show rounds since 2005, the Nurburgring version of the LF-A gets a serious rear spoiler, upgraded wheels that appear to be even bigger than the 20-inchers seen on the car displayed at Detroit earlier this year, and some far-reaching aero bodywork that encompasses an extra fuel filler near the upper rear air intake.

The track LF-A snapped here by the blokes at Carparazzi also gets dinky little rear-view mirrors, and a tight-knit trio of big-diameter exhaust outlets. Lexus had already announced the LF-A would take part in the event (more here), but this is the first glimpse of the race-ready car.

The lightening of the car via any means possible will help, but there is apparently a power-weight issue Toyota is not happy with, as far as the "regular" road-going version is concerned, that so far remains unsolved despite the 5.0-litre V10 engine.

Presumably any shortfall of kilowatts will be more than dealt with by the time the Nurburgring LF-A grids up in May, with reports saying the race special’s power is up to 370kW.

-- with Carparazzi

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