by Michael Satterfield - 06/06/2023
The morning sun pierced through the horizon, casting a golden hue upon the earth as I revved the engine of the Lexus IS500 F-Sport. Its powerful roar shattered the tranquility of our suburban neighborhood far too early, but that exhaust note just begs to be trumpeted. While Lexus is often seen as a producer of beige and very civilized vehicles this bright blue F-Sport with its V8 rumble shatters that stereotype.
Slipping into the embrace of the contoured sports seat, I adjusted the mirrors as my cameraman Lucas loaded his gear into the backseat. The smell of fresh morning dew burning off in the summer heat. paired with the anticipation of a day on the back roads and track had me excited to get on the road. I look down and notice they are still using the touchpad for the infotainment, I never have liked those things.
We were on our way to MSR Houston, not to wring out the Lexus in smoky four-wheel drifts, but to shoot some footage of our team's Pikes Peak Hill Climb car in testing. If we had time we might take a quick lap in the Lexus, but it's a press car and they don't like it when we play too hard with them.
The heat of the day was upon us as we approached MSR Houston, a track I had never been to, but according to the website, it was full of sleek villas and high-end supercars. Shockingly the internet is not a reality, Lucas and I exchanged puzzled glances as we made our way past the rows of cinderblock buildings and rickety wood viewing platforms. Where were the car condos and luxury homes... perhaps one day the renderings will become reality. A Formula Ford was pulling out of a garage, a man in a Jaguar F-Type was getting ready to head out on track, and a few men parked under a shade umbrella were loading a Mazda Miata.
The track, splayed out in a former rice paddy, is the closest track to Houston and might only rival Jakarta in terms of humidity. But it is the home track of Apex Auto Works the builder of the Pikes Peak car that we would be testing. The car which started life as a Miata is the brainchild of Richard Tomlin, who replaced everything that was Mazda until he ended up with a wild open-wheeled monster that clings to the ground thanks to two massive wings on either end. Powered by a monstrous V8 and emblazoned with the flag of Texas the Apexocet, as it is called, is a force to be reckoned with, yet is still registered and street legal.
The test driver today... would not be me, this car is too wild and has a very particular transmission, plus with just a few weeks before the race, I don't want to risk being the reason the car doesn't make it. As we fueled the car with Shell Gasoline, the driver pulled on his helmet before heading out on the track, everyone was excited to see the Apexocet make some laps. We followed the car onto the track in the Lexus before pulling off to the side, Lucas got his drone up in the air while Richard and I checked lap times. By the second lap, the car was really showing what it could do and in that moment, I stood as a witness to the remarkable union of man and machine, where the boundaries of possibility were shattered and the art of driving is truly achieved. This thing is going to be wild going up the mountain.
The raw unbridled nature of the Pikes Peak car stood in stark contrast to the refined and restrained Lexus, which when pushed is surprisingly more sporty than you might expect. While it does not have the raw brutality of a BMW M3 it does offer more thrills than your average driver will ever need.
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