LFA [Official] Lexus LF-A Supercar (Production Version)
Worst cars in history of cars:
Top Gear: The Worst Car in the History of the World
A very special Top Gear Special, presented by Jezza and Capt. Slow Esq. In fact why don't we let them introduce this particular slice of petrol heaven?
Everyone has an opinion on bad cars... Now it’s time to hear the ones that really count – ours...
As it’s the worst car in the history of the WORLD, we’re on our travels ... to the North of England...to name and shame the most rubbish car from a manufacturer which, frankly, should have known better.
But, it’s not all about hateful cars...Oh no. You have to revel in some of the finest ones to appreciate the stinkers. There’s the Ferrari 458 spider, Toyota’s GT86 and the £340,000 Lexus LFA rubbing shoulders with a Mercedes SLS.
Our guest driver, the Stig’s Yorkshire cousin, puts his whippet to one side and throws a BMW M5 round a gymkhana course before we have a go in a couple of Transatlantic challengers. Things don’t go well.
We spend treasured leisure time on the golf course continuing our debate. That doesn’t go well either. We even put our own cars – past and present – into the reckoning. That ends badly too.
We argue over the great and the awful from Peugeot, Ford, Mahindra, FSO, Alfa Romeo, Rolls Royce, Porsche, Citroen, Peugeot, Saab....and many more.
And we have a special, surprise fate in store for the car we pick as our biggest loser...
Enjoy ...
.
Jeremy Clarkson James May
Top Gear: The Worst Car in the History of the World
A very special Top Gear Special, presented by Jezza and Capt. Slow Esq. In fact why don't we let them introduce this particular slice of petrol heaven?
Everyone has an opinion on bad cars... Now it’s time to hear the ones that really count – ours...
As it’s the worst car in the history of the WORLD, we’re on our travels ... to the North of England...to name and shame the most rubbish car from a manufacturer which, frankly, should have known better.
But, it’s not all about hateful cars...Oh no. You have to revel in some of the finest ones to appreciate the stinkers. There’s the Ferrari 458 spider, Toyota’s GT86 and the £340,000 Lexus LFA rubbing shoulders with a Mercedes SLS.
Our guest driver, the Stig’s Yorkshire cousin, puts his whippet to one side and throws a BMW M5 round a gymkhana course before we have a go in a couple of Transatlantic challengers. Things don’t go well.
We spend treasured leisure time on the golf course continuing our debate. That doesn’t go well either. We even put our own cars – past and present – into the reckoning. That ends badly too.
We argue over the great and the awful from Peugeot, Ford, Mahindra, FSO, Alfa Romeo, Rolls Royce, Porsche, Citroen, Peugeot, Saab....and many more.
And we have a special, surprise fate in store for the car we pick as our biggest loser...
Enjoy ...
.
Jeremy Clarkson James May
Lexus LFA road trip:
https://secure.drivers.lexus.com/lexusdrivers/magazine/articles/Lexus-News/news_2012_11_30
Editor’s Note: Before the LFA’s recent race against a jet this fall, Lexus insider Paul Williamsen, national manager of Lexus international training, was tasked with the job of “breaking in” the vehicle to prep it for the competition. Williamsen’s drive ended up being the road trip of a lifetime—an LFA journey through the Colorado Rockies.
11/30/2012—Limited to a production run of 500 and each one uniquely configured by its owner, every Lexus LFA is special. However, during the second year of production there are a few that are even more exceptional—the fifty LFAs built with the Nürburgring performance package.
Designed with higher handling limits than the standard LFA, Nürburgring LFAs are upgraded with a lower, stiffer suspension, a massive fixed rear wing and deeper front air dam for greater aerodynamic downforce, and specially compounded Bridgestone Potenza tires on forged magnesium BBS wheels.
One such Nürburgring Edition is LFA #410, seen here, which was ordered by Lexus for the 2012–2013 auto show season, and would later be part of a high-speed driving event—last October’s race against a jet in Longmont, Colorado just two weeks after its arrival in North America.
This presented an interesting challenge prior to the race. Just like any new car, the LFA needed to be broken in properly to deliver peak performance, and completely preparing an LFA requires driving nearly one thousand miles. With the event in Colorado, it was decided that a weeklong drive through the eastern Rocky Mountains would be needed to accumulate the necessary mileage.
I graciously volunteered to be the test pilot.
Starting my trip in Denver, I headed south in the LFA. My very first task was to burn off the layer of manufacturing chemicals on the Bridgestone Potenza tires, completed after 100 miles. Shortly after, I arrived at the historic Cliff House Hotel in Manitou Springs.
The next day marked a world first for the LFA—ascending Pikes Peak, one of the highest roads in North America.
It takes some time for the LFA’s ceramic composite brake rotors to be “bedded” with the Brembo high-friction pads. This process can be accomplished by a trained driver on a racetrack in a few hours, but for regular LFA drivers, it means no sudden high-speed braking for the first 186 miles.
Engaging SPORT mode and paddle-shifting the six-speed sequentially shifted transmission on the numerous switchbacks of the 19-mile ascent added excitement to the necessarily sedate pace.
Even with the lower ride height and deeper front spoiler of the Nürburgring package, the LFA was able to skip over patches of ice and snow and around small ruts in the road. I reached the summit without incident, stopping to enjoy the views that inspired Katharine Lee Bates to compose “America the Beautiful” in 1893.
The LFA’s V10 engine needs about 310 miles for the piston rings and cylinders to become acquainted and establish wear patterns—until that mileage is attained the rev limit is restrained to just 7,400 RPM. This milestone was reached on the third day, and the LFA was finally able to sing to the 9,000 RPM redline during full-throttle upshifts around the gentle bends of State Highway 9 between Canon City and Fairplay.
On day four, I crossed the spine of the Rockies again, this time through the Eisenhower Tunnel. I planned to take this route past Granby to the west end of Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park, but the road had just been closed by snow for the season. This meant backtracking all the way to the Peak to Peak Highway, and visibility and temperatures were dropping faster than the sun as I approached the rustic Aspen Lodge in Tahosa Valley.
Day five dawned well below freezing. The Nürburgring LFA’s summer-only tires aren’t recommended for use at temperatures below 40 degrees Fahrenheit, and it wasn’t until my third cup of coffee that I started the engine for a thorough warm-up as the sun rose and the frost cleared.
Driving around Rocky Mountain National Park, I passed the grand old dame of Estes Park, the Stanley Hotel. Founded in 1909 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Stanley Hotel was the inspiration for Steven King’s development of The Shining. Around this time, LFA #410 reached 620 miles and was now able to use its launch control system, a driver aid that assists acceleration from a standing start.
On the final day of driving, I travelled the narrow twisting road down and up the St. Vrain River Valley, which added more scenery to the trip and more miles on the odometer. The long and winding road east from Estes Park to Loveland provided the first dry pavement in days, letting the tires bite a little harder around the curves and the engine pull stronger in the hills.
The odometer edged past 900 miles as signs for Longmont indicated this drive was coming to an end. If the standard LFA is a capable and willing partner for spirited driving, the Nürburgring LFA is even more capable and willing.
After washing the car at Stevinson Lexus in Lakewood and a few more miles driving in town, the Nürburgring LFA #410 was handed over to race car driver Scott Pruett for its next assignment—beating a jet in an all-out speed race, which raised $20,000 for charity.
—PAUL WILLIAMSEN, NATIONAL MANAGER OF LEXUS INTERNATIONAL TRAINING
https://secure.drivers.lexus.com/lexusdrivers/magazine/articles/Lexus-News/news_2012_11_30
Editor’s Note: Before the LFA’s recent race against a jet this fall, Lexus insider Paul Williamsen, national manager of Lexus international training, was tasked with the job of “breaking in” the vehicle to prep it for the competition. Williamsen’s drive ended up being the road trip of a lifetime—an LFA journey through the Colorado Rockies.
11/30/2012—Limited to a production run of 500 and each one uniquely configured by its owner, every Lexus LFA is special. However, during the second year of production there are a few that are even more exceptional—the fifty LFAs built with the Nürburgring performance package.
Designed with higher handling limits than the standard LFA, Nürburgring LFAs are upgraded with a lower, stiffer suspension, a massive fixed rear wing and deeper front air dam for greater aerodynamic downforce, and specially compounded Bridgestone Potenza tires on forged magnesium BBS wheels.
One such Nürburgring Edition is LFA #410, seen here, which was ordered by Lexus for the 2012–2013 auto show season, and would later be part of a high-speed driving event—last October’s race against a jet in Longmont, Colorado just two weeks after its arrival in North America.
This presented an interesting challenge prior to the race. Just like any new car, the LFA needed to be broken in properly to deliver peak performance, and completely preparing an LFA requires driving nearly one thousand miles. With the event in Colorado, it was decided that a weeklong drive through the eastern Rocky Mountains would be needed to accumulate the necessary mileage.
I graciously volunteered to be the test pilot.
Starting my trip in Denver, I headed south in the LFA. My very first task was to burn off the layer of manufacturing chemicals on the Bridgestone Potenza tires, completed after 100 miles. Shortly after, I arrived at the historic Cliff House Hotel in Manitou Springs.
The next day marked a world first for the LFA—ascending Pikes Peak, one of the highest roads in North America.
It takes some time for the LFA’s ceramic composite brake rotors to be “bedded” with the Brembo high-friction pads. This process can be accomplished by a trained driver on a racetrack in a few hours, but for regular LFA drivers, it means no sudden high-speed braking for the first 186 miles.
Engaging SPORT mode and paddle-shifting the six-speed sequentially shifted transmission on the numerous switchbacks of the 19-mile ascent added excitement to the necessarily sedate pace.
Even with the lower ride height and deeper front spoiler of the Nürburgring package, the LFA was able to skip over patches of ice and snow and around small ruts in the road. I reached the summit without incident, stopping to enjoy the views that inspired Katharine Lee Bates to compose “America the Beautiful” in 1893.
The LFA’s V10 engine needs about 310 miles for the piston rings and cylinders to become acquainted and establish wear patterns—until that mileage is attained the rev limit is restrained to just 7,400 RPM. This milestone was reached on the third day, and the LFA was finally able to sing to the 9,000 RPM redline during full-throttle upshifts around the gentle bends of State Highway 9 between Canon City and Fairplay.
On day four, I crossed the spine of the Rockies again, this time through the Eisenhower Tunnel. I planned to take this route past Granby to the west end of Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park, but the road had just been closed by snow for the season. This meant backtracking all the way to the Peak to Peak Highway, and visibility and temperatures were dropping faster than the sun as I approached the rustic Aspen Lodge in Tahosa Valley.
Day five dawned well below freezing. The Nürburgring LFA’s summer-only tires aren’t recommended for use at temperatures below 40 degrees Fahrenheit, and it wasn’t until my third cup of coffee that I started the engine for a thorough warm-up as the sun rose and the frost cleared.
Driving around Rocky Mountain National Park, I passed the grand old dame of Estes Park, the Stanley Hotel. Founded in 1909 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Stanley Hotel was the inspiration for Steven King’s development of The Shining. Around this time, LFA #410 reached 620 miles and was now able to use its launch control system, a driver aid that assists acceleration from a standing start.
On the final day of driving, I travelled the narrow twisting road down and up the St. Vrain River Valley, which added more scenery to the trip and more miles on the odometer. The long and winding road east from Estes Park to Loveland provided the first dry pavement in days, letting the tires bite a little harder around the curves and the engine pull stronger in the hills.
The odometer edged past 900 miles as signs for Longmont indicated this drive was coming to an end. If the standard LFA is a capable and willing partner for spirited driving, the Nürburgring LFA is even more capable and willing.
After washing the car at Stevinson Lexus in Lakewood and a few more miles driving in town, the Nürburgring LFA #410 was handed over to race car driver Scott Pruett for its next assignment—beating a jet in an all-out speed race, which raised $20,000 for charity.
—PAUL WILLIAMSEN, NATIONAL MANAGER OF LEXUS INTERNATIONAL TRAINING
Yes. National Geographic
Gianclaudio
Aerodynamic Artisan
Clarkson on the LFA:
Jeremy on: the Lexus LFA
Sometimes, my job is so stressful I want to sit in a corner and weep. Sometimes, I cannot find space in my yard for all the cars I need to drive that week. Then, I find I have to be in on a Friday because someone is delivering the new Pagani. Let me give you the most recent example: we had decided to film a selection of expensive cars in the deserts of western America. This would mean six days in the sunshine, hurtling about in someone else's car and showing off.
Hammond would be in the new Dodge Viper. May would be in the new Aston Vanquish. And I had bagged the Ferrari F12. But it turned out the Ferrari would not be ready in time, so I'd have to think of something else. The SLS Black? The Audi R8 GT? This is the sort of nightmare I have to go through on a daily basis.
I was still mulling it over when I slipped through the super-lightweight door of what appeared to be a Toyota Celica. It wasn't a Celica, though. It was a £350,000 Lexus LFA. And, an hour later, I knew exactly what I'd be driving in America. It was senbleedingsational.
This is a car that took five years to develop. And then, just as it was about to go into production, the engineers decided it would be better if the body were made from carbon fibre, not aluminium. Any normal board of directors would have told them to get lost. But the Toyota cheeses said, "OK, here is another bathtub full of yen."
So they went back to the drawing board and started again. And, after four more years of constant testing at the Nürburgring and constant fiddling and tweaking, they had created something really rather spectacular.
Unlike a normal Lexus which isolates the occupants from any sensations at all, the LFA feels like what it is: a machine. It has a single-clutch gearbox, because that way you notice the changes. It pitters, patters and howls. Sometimes, you get the impression you're actually sitting inside one of the 10 cylinders. It's a very long time since I drove something so highbrow, so magnificent, so detailed, so perfect. After driving an LFA, everything else feels as squidgy as one of Arsène Wenger's coats.
But I have a problem because, when we get to the States, Chuck Hammond and James Bond are going to argue I've brought the wrong car, and I don't doubt for a second they will force me to play Top Trumps. The Lexus will lose on all counts. It isn't as fast as their cars. It doesn't accelerate with the same verve. It isn't as powerful. And the stratospheric £350,000 price tag makes it by far the most expensive. They will go on about this a lot, because they are children.
Afterwards, they will ask with serious faces why it has a V10 engine, knowing full well that when the LFA was first conceived, Toyota was in Formula One and, back then, the racers had 10 cylinders. It is therefore designed to showcase a technology that is now, very much, out of date.
There's more too. I have argued many times in the past that a car must have some sense of place. An Aston should feel British. A Ferrari should feel Italian. A Viper should feel fat. The LFA feels like the product of a science laboratory. This is something that affects all Japanese cars.
Probably it's because, from the very beginning, Japanese carmakers have thought most of all about export markets. While Austin made cars specifically for Britain and Citroen specifically for France, Toyota and Datsun were making cars specifically for absolutely everywhere. This is probably why Japanese cars often feel anodyne and bland.
You drive a Japanese car, and you feel absolutely no connection. It's something you neither respect nor like. It's a tool, like a shovel or chest freezer. There's no personality, and personality is the difference between a good car and a great one. To me, personality is everything.
James and Richard will mention this too, while pointing at the LFA. Then they will call me a fraud and say I'm using the LFA only because they'd already shotgunned the best cars.
I shall need to have a response ready for that, and I think I have. Because, very occasionally, Japan does make a car that's good precisely because it has no soul. Honda does it more than most, notably with the CRX and the NSX. Nissan did it with the GT-R, Mitsubishi with the Evo, and now Lexus has done it, in some style, with the LFA.
Let me tell you about the dashboard. When you change the settings, the speedo, which looks like it might actually be real rather than an electronic read-out, moves to make way for extra dials and more information. You would never get bored with that.
Then you have the materials chosen to line the doors, the dash and the transmission tunnel. Most car designers have a two-page catalogue - one for leather, one for carbon fibre. But Lexus has been to the Kevin McCloud school of interior design and found small companies in Latvia and Mali that are able to cut and shape stuff no one has ever heard of before. It really is a grand design.
Of course, like the Grand Designs we see on Channel 4, it has no history. It sticks up from the landscape like a weird thing. It's odd. But it draws you in. It intrigues you. Maybe after a while, you would be bored with it. But I suspect it would take a while...
The noise is one thing. At high revs, it sounds like a million bonfire-night sparklers, amplified through AC/DC's mixing desk and fired into the face of whoever it was you just overtook. It crackles. And then, when you think it can't rev any more, the crackle turns into a baleful howl. It's time to pull on the paddle, feel the clonk and settle back in the exquisite seat, ready for it to start all over again.
Then you see a bump ahead. The road surface is scarred by all the sumps that have clattered into it over the years. You feel you should brake because the low-riding LFA is bound to connect. But there's no need, because the suspension is so sorted that it doesn't ever bottom out.
On paper, the Viper and Aston demolish the Lexus. But I have a suspicion that in the real world - well, as real as it ever gets in and around Vegas - it'll be the other way around.
Hard ride? Yes. But it's not stupid. It's the exact amount of hardness you need to make sure the next corner can be taken at about a million mph.
There's only one comparable car I can think of. The Ferrari 599 GTO. Kato, if you follow the show closely. Obviously, this has bags more personality than the LFA and feels so much more human as a result. It's fallible and confused, and when it rains it goes all to pieces. It's hard to master, but deeply rewarding when you do.
The LFA doesn't show any of those traits at all. It's more like a Terminator. You tell it what to do, and it will keep on doing it. It absolutely will not stop.
Can you ever love a machine? Of course you can. John Connor did. And I love the LFA.
Jeremy Clarkson
Jeremy on: the Lexus LFA
Sometimes, my job is so stressful I want to sit in a corner and weep. Sometimes, I cannot find space in my yard for all the cars I need to drive that week. Then, I find I have to be in on a Friday because someone is delivering the new Pagani. Let me give you the most recent example: we had decided to film a selection of expensive cars in the deserts of western America. This would mean six days in the sunshine, hurtling about in someone else's car and showing off.
Hammond would be in the new Dodge Viper. May would be in the new Aston Vanquish. And I had bagged the Ferrari F12. But it turned out the Ferrari would not be ready in time, so I'd have to think of something else. The SLS Black? The Audi R8 GT? This is the sort of nightmare I have to go through on a daily basis.
I was still mulling it over when I slipped through the super-lightweight door of what appeared to be a Toyota Celica. It wasn't a Celica, though. It was a £350,000 Lexus LFA. And, an hour later, I knew exactly what I'd be driving in America. It was senbleedingsational.
This is a car that took five years to develop. And then, just as it was about to go into production, the engineers decided it would be better if the body were made from carbon fibre, not aluminium. Any normal board of directors would have told them to get lost. But the Toyota cheeses said, "OK, here is another bathtub full of yen."
So they went back to the drawing board and started again. And, after four more years of constant testing at the Nürburgring and constant fiddling and tweaking, they had created something really rather spectacular.
Unlike a normal Lexus which isolates the occupants from any sensations at all, the LFA feels like what it is: a machine. It has a single-clutch gearbox, because that way you notice the changes. It pitters, patters and howls. Sometimes, you get the impression you're actually sitting inside one of the 10 cylinders. It's a very long time since I drove something so highbrow, so magnificent, so detailed, so perfect. After driving an LFA, everything else feels as squidgy as one of Arsène Wenger's coats.
But I have a problem because, when we get to the States, Chuck Hammond and James Bond are going to argue I've brought the wrong car, and I don't doubt for a second they will force me to play Top Trumps. The Lexus will lose on all counts. It isn't as fast as their cars. It doesn't accelerate with the same verve. It isn't as powerful. And the stratospheric £350,000 price tag makes it by far the most expensive. They will go on about this a lot, because they are children.
Afterwards, they will ask with serious faces why it has a V10 engine, knowing full well that when the LFA was first conceived, Toyota was in Formula One and, back then, the racers had 10 cylinders. It is therefore designed to showcase a technology that is now, very much, out of date.
There's more too. I have argued many times in the past that a car must have some sense of place. An Aston should feel British. A Ferrari should feel Italian. A Viper should feel fat. The LFA feels like the product of a science laboratory. This is something that affects all Japanese cars.
Probably it's because, from the very beginning, Japanese carmakers have thought most of all about export markets. While Austin made cars specifically for Britain and Citroen specifically for France, Toyota and Datsun were making cars specifically for absolutely everywhere. This is probably why Japanese cars often feel anodyne and bland.
You drive a Japanese car, and you feel absolutely no connection. It's something you neither respect nor like. It's a tool, like a shovel or chest freezer. There's no personality, and personality is the difference between a good car and a great one. To me, personality is everything.
James and Richard will mention this too, while pointing at the LFA. Then they will call me a fraud and say I'm using the LFA only because they'd already shotgunned the best cars.
I shall need to have a response ready for that, and I think I have. Because, very occasionally, Japan does make a car that's good precisely because it has no soul. Honda does it more than most, notably with the CRX and the NSX. Nissan did it with the GT-R, Mitsubishi with the Evo, and now Lexus has done it, in some style, with the LFA.
Let me tell you about the dashboard. When you change the settings, the speedo, which looks like it might actually be real rather than an electronic read-out, moves to make way for extra dials and more information. You would never get bored with that.
Then you have the materials chosen to line the doors, the dash and the transmission tunnel. Most car designers have a two-page catalogue - one for leather, one for carbon fibre. But Lexus has been to the Kevin McCloud school of interior design and found small companies in Latvia and Mali that are able to cut and shape stuff no one has ever heard of before. It really is a grand design.
Of course, like the Grand Designs we see on Channel 4, it has no history. It sticks up from the landscape like a weird thing. It's odd. But it draws you in. It intrigues you. Maybe after a while, you would be bored with it. But I suspect it would take a while...
The noise is one thing. At high revs, it sounds like a million bonfire-night sparklers, amplified through AC/DC's mixing desk and fired into the face of whoever it was you just overtook. It crackles. And then, when you think it can't rev any more, the crackle turns into a baleful howl. It's time to pull on the paddle, feel the clonk and settle back in the exquisite seat, ready for it to start all over again.
Then you see a bump ahead. The road surface is scarred by all the sumps that have clattered into it over the years. You feel you should brake because the low-riding LFA is bound to connect. But there's no need, because the suspension is so sorted that it doesn't ever bottom out.
On paper, the Viper and Aston demolish the Lexus. But I have a suspicion that in the real world - well, as real as it ever gets in and around Vegas - it'll be the other way around.
Hard ride? Yes. But it's not stupid. It's the exact amount of hardness you need to make sure the next corner can be taken at about a million mph.
There's only one comparable car I can think of. The Ferrari 599 GTO. Kato, if you follow the show closely. Obviously, this has bags more personality than the LFA and feels so much more human as a result. It's fallible and confused, and when it rains it goes all to pieces. It's hard to master, but deeply rewarding when you do.
The LFA doesn't show any of those traits at all. It's more like a Terminator. You tell it what to do, and it will keep on doing it. It absolutely will not stop.
Can you ever love a machine? Of course you can. John Connor did. And I love the LFA.
Jeremy Clarkson
Jesus Clark
Autobahn Newbie
Not bad at all, only headlights look a bit ackward, love the interior.
Monteverdi
Schwarzwald Sprinter
The very last Lexus LFA – LFA #500 – has left the Motomachi Plant in Japan tow years after production started and three years after the LFA was revealed.
Lexus threatened to build a supercar for years before it finally bowed in at the 2009 Tokyo Motor Show as the Lexus LFA with a 4.8 litre V10, proper supercar performance and a price tag very much the wrong side of £300k.
The idea of a Lexus supercar that cost so much seemed barking mad, but the LFA turned out to be a very special car indeed, not just for its build and performance but for what it meant for Lexus and Toyota – a future that would encompass many of the LFA’s design cues and DNA in future mainstream models.
But three years after the LFA debuted, and exactly two years after the LFA went in to production at the TMC dedicated production facility at the Motomachi Plant, Aichi Prefecture, the last LFA – a white LFA Nurburgring Package #500 – has left the building.
It took a team of 170 workers the full two years to produce the 500 LFAs at the rate of one a day, and every car has been sold.
It’s the end of a supercar adventure for Lexus, but an adventure that seems to have made Lexus and Toyota a far more interesting car maker than before.
http://www.carsuk.net/last-lexus-lfa-leaves-motomachi-plant/#ixzz2FIsG9OHd
Lexus threatened to build a supercar for years before it finally bowed in at the 2009 Tokyo Motor Show as the Lexus LFA with a 4.8 litre V10, proper supercar performance and a price tag very much the wrong side of £300k.
The idea of a Lexus supercar that cost so much seemed barking mad, but the LFA turned out to be a very special car indeed, not just for its build and performance but for what it meant for Lexus and Toyota – a future that would encompass many of the LFA’s design cues and DNA in future mainstream models.
But three years after the LFA debuted, and exactly two years after the LFA went in to production at the TMC dedicated production facility at the Motomachi Plant, Aichi Prefecture, the last LFA – a white LFA Nurburgring Package #500 – has left the building.
It took a team of 170 workers the full two years to produce the 500 LFAs at the rate of one a day, and every car has been sold.
It’s the end of a supercar adventure for Lexus, but an adventure that seems to have made Lexus and Toyota a far more interesting car maker than before.
http://www.carsuk.net/last-lexus-lfa-leaves-motomachi-plant/#ixzz2FIsG9OHd
hoffmeister_fan
Kraftwagen König
I know it's just a car, but I can't help feeling a tinge of sadness. Hopefully, there's a successor in waiting that not only meets but exceeds the LFA.
Monteverdi
Schwarzwald Sprinter
Lexus Wants New Halo Car to Replace LFA
The Lexus LFA was unquestionably the most performance-oriented, strictly-limited and advanced car to ever come out of the Japanese company. However, with its run of 500 units recently coming to an end, Lexus is planning to introduce a new halo sports car for the younger generation, but it won’t be a direct replacement to the LFA like previously speculated.
Rumors dating back just a few months claimed that Lexus was planning an LFA II which would in essence be a car with twice the performance and twice the price of the outgoing model. However, according to Lexus Exectuitve Vice President Kazuo Ohara, such a car is unlikely to eventuate.
Ohara stated “If we want to build a more emotional brand, then we need a halo car” and although this may not take the form of a new LFA, in the post-LFA era Lexus is said to be generating different ideas to generate youthful excitement and inject some new energy into the brand which usually caters for wealthy business people.
In order to create such a car, Lexus will give up trying to fight with Audi, BMW and Mercedes and may instead look for more entry-level luxury marques such as Cadillac, Infiniti and Lincoln and the fitment of new exciting cars should fit nicely into such a segment.
What exactly Ohara means by injecting a more youthful experience into the brand is not fully known, but it’s possible that a new sports car similar to the Toyota GT86 could be in the works.
With that being said, Toyota and Lexus are in essence the same brand, so some in-house fighting could ensue. Either that, or Lexus will instead create another supercar but instead price it similar to a Corvette.
The Lexus LFA was unquestionably the most performance-oriented, strictly-limited and advanced car to ever come out of the Japanese company. However, with its run of 500 units recently coming to an end, Lexus is planning to introduce a new halo sports car for the younger generation, but it won’t be a direct replacement to the LFA like previously speculated.
Rumors dating back just a few months claimed that Lexus was planning an LFA II which would in essence be a car with twice the performance and twice the price of the outgoing model. However, according to Lexus Exectuitve Vice President Kazuo Ohara, such a car is unlikely to eventuate.
Ohara stated “If we want to build a more emotional brand, then we need a halo car” and although this may not take the form of a new LFA, in the post-LFA era Lexus is said to be generating different ideas to generate youthful excitement and inject some new energy into the brand which usually caters for wealthy business people.
In order to create such a car, Lexus will give up trying to fight with Audi, BMW and Mercedes and may instead look for more entry-level luxury marques such as Cadillac, Infiniti and Lincoln and the fitment of new exciting cars should fit nicely into such a segment.
What exactly Ohara means by injecting a more youthful experience into the brand is not fully known, but it’s possible that a new sports car similar to the Toyota GT86 could be in the works.
With that being said, Toyota and Lexus are in essence the same brand, so some in-house fighting could ensue. Either that, or Lexus will instead create another supercar but instead price it similar to a Corvette.
New Gazoo GT-Class Lexus LFA for 2013 Nurburgring 24-hours race
http://lexusenthusiast.com/2013/01/11/new-lexus-lfa-race-car-introduced-by-gazoo-racing-in-japan/
http://lexusenthusiast.com/2013/01/11/new-lexus-lfa-race-car-introduced-by-gazoo-racing-in-japan/
hoffmeister_fan
Kraftwagen König
Yea, I know I should be studying but...
This video will do 2 things...
1) Answer why this car costs US$375000+
2) Put a grin on your face. Goodness, I want this car soooo bad.
This video will do 2 things...
1) Answer why this car costs US$375000+
2) Put a grin on your face. Goodness, I want this car soooo bad.
Top Gear Season 19 Teaser:
Clarkson racing a plane in a Lexus LFA in Nevada dessert (Season 2-hour road trip special: LFA vs Viper SRT-10 vs AM Vanquish)
http://transmission.blogs.topgear.c...-your-first-glimpse-of-series-19-of-top-gear/
Brisbane LFA owner's club videos:
How do 3 LFAs all launching together sound ? (followed by Mclaren MP4-12C, Aston Martin One-77)
LFA owner's point-of-view lap video on the track @Lakeside raceway, Brisbane (skip music 2:20 - 5:50) :
GT3 RS 4.0 and LFA highway:
Clarkson racing a plane in a Lexus LFA in Nevada dessert (Season 2-hour road trip special: LFA vs Viper SRT-10 vs AM Vanquish)
http://transmission.blogs.topgear.c...-your-first-glimpse-of-series-19-of-top-gear/
Brisbane LFA owner's club videos:
How do 3 LFAs all launching together sound ? (followed by Mclaren MP4-12C, Aston Martin One-77)
LFA owner's point-of-view lap video on the track @Lakeside raceway, Brisbane (skip music 2:20 - 5:50) :
GT3 RS 4.0 and LFA highway:
Similar threads
Lexus
Lexus is the luxury vehicle division of the Japanese automaker Toyota Motor Corporation.
Founded in 1989, the Lexus brand is marketed in over 90 countries and territories worldwide
and is Japan's largest-selling make of premium cars. Lexus is headquartered in Nagoya, Japan.
Its operational centers are in Brussels, Belgium, and Plano, Texas, United States.
Official website: Lexus
Official website: Lexus
