Lexus Pikes Peak racer revealed

Humans. We're a funny old bunch, if you consider our predicament. A species so seemingly at ease with its mortality, we fashion 1,400kg, 400bhp firecrackers to race up 14,000ft mountains. For fun.

Welcome, Internet, to the Lexus IS-F CCS-R. It is a V8-powered, rear-wheel-drive merchant of orangey-oversteer, and is set to participate in this year's annual ‘race to the clouds' that is the Pikes Peaks International Hillclimb. Lexus has revealed its barest, most naked statistics, and we shall gleefully regale them for your delectation.

So, that engine: it's the standard IS-F's 5.0-litre V8, weighing in at 416bhp and 371lb ft of torque, featuring exciting direct-to-cylinder injection! It's mounted up front, powering the rear wheels, and gets an eight-speed sports auto with paddle shifts.

Gallery: Lexus IS-F CCS-R

It gets a reinforced monocoque with an integrated roll cage, a carbon fibre bonnet, front wings, front and rear spoiler and even CF door handles. The windows are polycarbonate and even the doors are lightweight. As such, the whole thing measures in at 1400kg - 330kg lighter than the IS-F. For some reference, the road-going IS-F hits 62mph in 4.8 seconds and tops out at 168mph.

Racing brakes with stainless steel hoses sit underneath 18in alloys, and they're kept in a tempestuous relationship with the road via modified race suspension with reinforced bushings and mounts. There's also a racing exhaust. And it's orange.

You probably guessed much of this spec, what with Pikes being a ‘competition' and everything, but we wanted to give you some idea of the knuckle-duster effect the IS-F is packing. It'll be driven in the Exhibition class by Californian rookie Ken Gushi, who will ostensibly spend the entire 12.4 mile race trying not to fall off the edge. Not sure what we're on about? Settle down, grab a cuppa and enjoy the glory that is Ari Vatanen powersliding up Pikes in 1988, below...