2016 Lexus RC350F Sport Time Attack Build

Falling back into love with the car scene. My wife and I met years ago through a Cobalt car club. Mine was 2006 Cobalt LS that I supercharged & hers 2010 Cobalt LT. Since then I've had many cars - a 2004 Pontiac GTO, 2008 Saturn Sky Redline, and a 2001 Chevy Corvette Z51. During COVID, I took my rebate check when buying a 2021 Chevy Silverado 1500 RST 5.3L to pay off my Corvette. Then a few months later because of the prices of used cars shooting up - I sold it for $10,000 to CarMax. I just drove to work and home in my truck, and really didn't have the desire to get back into the scene...until my wife got me back in. On her 30th birthday, she found her unicorn, a white 2018 Chevy Camaro ZL1 - her dream car and spec. I agreed to her purchase, and went to cars and coffee events with her. But deep down - I didn't have anything to show off or drive with her, like we used to in the past. In September 2025, she told me to find a fun car for me and keep it under $25,000. I wanted to find something different than what everyone else was driving. The plan was that I can use it as strictly a take to work on Fridays and drive on the weekends. I found my unicorn in Clearwater, Florida - a molten orange pearl 2016 Lexus RC350 F Sport, AWD. I would have loved to buy the molten orange pearl RC F that was on offer at Carvana at the same time, but the asking price was $40,000, which was way over budget. After buying the car, I had slight buyer's remorse since the aftermarket support was limited. I felt like it was "regular traffic", and really didn't mod it. But that mentality changed in January 2026. My wife's friends invited me to go to a time attack event at our local race track, Musselman Honda Circuit in Tucson, Arizona. That's when it hit me, I fell in love with the car scene again. I love racing, I love going to car shows with my wife - with both cars. I love driving with her together just like how it was 13 years ago. Then I found a local performance shop, who specialized in Japanese and European cars. One of the sales consultants drives a modded Evo, as well as a Lexus GS350. We started strategizing what parts to install on my RC350 - with the added complexity of it being AWD when most of the parts are for RWD only. We have the car pretty dialed in for time attack. My primary mission with the build, make the car faster than my wife's car for our small local track. Since I know any "big boy" tracks, she will likely kill me due to the difference in power. As of the writing of this story, I will be attending my first time attack at a different track, Inde Motorsport Ranch in Wilcox, Arizona for Pro Autosports, with a bunch of friends I have made this past year at the track, and my wife will be joining me too in her ZL1.