Lexus claims multiple justifications for the LFA program. The car, it says, casts a halo over the Lexus F line of performance machines. The program started in 2000, and Lexus showed the first concept car at the Detroit auto show in 2005. In the interim, LFA prototypes were spotted testing at the Nordschleife, and further, two race-prepared cars entered the 24-hour race at the Nürburgring in 2008 and 2009. Although the car is extravagantly expensive, Lexus says it will lose money on every one. The last car that incorporated a similar level of technology, performance, and exclusivity was the $650,000 Ferrari Enzo. The LFA is an exotic, two-place, front-engine, rear-wheel-drive coupe. Per Lexus’s scales, the car weighs 3263 pounds—less than a Corvette ZR1.
The rear-mounted, six-speed automated manual transaxle incorporates a Torsen limited-slip differential. Forged aluminum 20-inch BBS wheels sit inside bespoke 265/35 front and 305/30 rear Bridgestone Potenza tires. There are four driving modes: automatic, normal, wet, and sport; the driver can also select manual shift speeds. The LFA has a reasonably low coefficient of drag (0.31), and Tanahashi says that the car produces more downforce than any of its competitors. The car we drove had a mixture of supple leather, carbon fiber, Alcantara, and “satin metal” adorning the cockpit. The squared-off steering wheel houses a start button and a switch that controls the instrument-panel display. Over here on the Lightning course there are three cars: a couple of Lexus IS-F mules and a single, freshly painted LFA. It's every motor journalist's dream: track time in a really, really fast car.
Ten years aborning, the LFA is earmarked to be Lexus' halo car, a cost-no-object testbed for the highest performance that technology can provide. The LFA starts with a carbon-fiber tub, fabbed with prepreg, resin transfer molding, and carbon-fiber reinforced sheet-molding compound. The LFA is propelled by a 4.8-liter V10 that produces 552 hp at 8700 rpm and 354 lb-ft at 6800 rpm. The automatic sequential gearbox is shifted by steering-column-mounted paddles. Mounting the transaxle in the rear allows a 48/52 front/rear weight distribution.
Currently Lexus has exactly one developmental demo car, so the Lexus PR people are (justifiably) nervous that their baby will get wadded up before the day is over. Endurance driver Scott Pruett has been helping Lexus engineers develop the LFA: He's along to keep us out of trouble. Terminal velocities on the front straight are nearly 130, plenty fast, but well below the LFA's 202-mph top speed. The engine power is prodigious, but it's very Lexus-like—refined and smooth, but punchy enough to zing the car to 60 mph in only 3.7 seconds. We drove the car on a mixture of autobahn and dual-track roads, as well as at the Nürburging. Lexus claims a 0-to-62-mph time of 3.7 seconds and a top speed of 202 mph—utterly believable when considering the LFA’s power-to-weight ratio of 5.9 pounds per horsepower. The V-10 is so flexible that the driver can deposit the car in sixth gear at relatively low speeds—say 50 mph—floor the throttle, and the car will rocket to 150 mph in a hurry. For all that, the most impressive aspect of the car is its stability at speed. The car’s behavior is then determined by a combination of steering lock and throttle input, just the way a good front-engine, rear-drive car should be. The LFA is the most exciting car to come out of Japan since the GT-R, as it should be for the money Lexus is charging. At the same time, the LFA is easy to drive at everyday speeds, quiet at cruise, and refined, just like a Lexus should be.
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| 2012 Lexus LFA Sports Car |
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| Lexus LFA car front |
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| Lexus sports car interior dashboard |
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| 2012 Lexus LFA cabin |
