This Toyota Sienna Is Lapping Willow Springs Faster Than An M3
By Paulo Acoba
If I told you that there’s a Toyota Sienna out there that can wipe the floor with your neighbor’s Corvette Grand Sport, you’d probably not believe me.
Earlier last year, Toyota introduced a couple of special edition models at the annual SEMA show including one track inspired Toyota Sienna dubbed R-Tuned. It looks like this particular Sienna is finally making its media circuit round as according to VanKulture off of Instagram earlier today, this R-Tuned Sienna spent a day hot lapping at Willow Springs Raceway in Southern California. Not only was the R-Tuned Sienna straight whipping it around the corners, the portly van was putting down some solid lap times comparable with some of the world’s best sports cars. Check out a bit of footage of this family hauler…hauling it around Willow Springs as well as a bit of social media rolling in.
When this R-Tuned Sienna was first introduced to the public, Toyota made the bold claim that this Sienna was faster than a 2015 Chevrolet Camaro SS. A video published soon after backed up that claim along with the recipe and a few technical details on how they actually pulled that off.
After a 700-pound weight reduction, the outfitting of much bigger wheels and tires as well as dialing in the suspension thanks to double-adjustable shocks and race springs, what results is this canyon carving Sienna.
According to VanKulture today,
"During actual testing today, the #Rspec achieved consistent 1:27 to 1:28 times around the track which are comparable to some pretty good cars like the M3 and Chevy corvette grand sport .. Pretty impressive"
Next: The Toyota S-FR Concept Is A Pint-Sized RWD Miata Fighter
Vans have received considerable market competition from small car-based crossover SUV’s and SUV’s in general. The stigma of a van is someone trading in sportiness for practicality. What Toyota is trying to do is inject a bit of sportiness in a platform that few would think of as being anywhere near sports car like. We’ll be curious to see what parts of this R-Tuned program trickles down to consumer models.