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Spy Shots: Lexus LF-A engine spied
After countless spy photos and appearances at auto shows for the past several years in two different styling forms, the Lexus LF-A made its first official appearance on the road this weekend at the Nürburgring 24 hour race. At some point during the weekends festivities, Automobile managed to snag a shot of the engine lurking under the race-prepped Lexus' hood. We can't derive a lot of details from this single shot, but we can get a few tidbits.Looking at the area behind the intake plenum near the firewall on the driver's side, the engine looks long enough to likely be a V10 as has been previously postulated. The bank angle appears to be 90 degrees for a lower center of gravity than would be available from the normal 72-degree bank angle for a V10. The intake plenum is apparently made up of a composite material, again, likely for both overall weight reduction and and lowering the CG. Under that however, the intake runners appear to be metal. Finally the engine is set well back in the chassis for a front mid-engine layout, almost entirely behind the front axle line. Now that the LF-A has hit the track in anger, maybe we'll see it in production form soon, perhaps even at the Paris this October or Geneva next year.
Gallery: Lexus LF-A Concept
Gallery: Lexus LF-A Roadster
[Source: Automobile]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Duders 5:40PM (5/26/2008)
Hit the track in anger? More like the pits.
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why not the LS2LS7? 5:52PM (5/26/2008)
That engine is not particularly far back, well, for any car except an Audi.
Look at the front of the engine, like the cam chain cover marked #447, it is right in line with that red sticker, then in the lower pic you can see the red sticker goes almost to the front of the front rim.
The engine is about as far back as the engine in a 3-series.
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Derek 6:06PM (5/26/2008)
Either way, it looks like it will be sheer joy to change the back four or six sparkplugs!
hashiryu 9:03PM (5/26/2008)
It's a fricken V10, you ass, where do you want it? In the cockpit?
why not the LS2LS7? 9:19PM (5/26/2008)
hashiryu:
How about we keep this to the topic and lay off the attacks?
The article says this is almost a front mid-engine layout.
It simply isn't.
Smeagle 10:50PM (5/26/2008)
hashiryu:
To some people, nothing is good enough unless it has a Chevy badge and a big V8. Don't take what the biased fanbois say to heart.
why not the LS2LS7? 11:25PM (5/26/2008)
Where did I impune this car?
Article says it is near mid-engined. It is not. Not particularly close.
Temple 1:19AM (5/27/2008)
@why not the LS2LS7?
>>The article says this is almost a front mid-engine layout.
Its pretty damn far back from the pictures I see from Motor Authority which has a more wider angle shot. It is most definitely a "front-mid" engined vehicle, the engine is well behind the front axle.
http://www.motorauthority.com/wp-content/plugins/iimage-gallery.php?idpost=5962&idg=1&idi=5
why not the LS2LS7? 2:33AM (5/27/2008)
Temple:
Read my post. Look at the pics in the "read" clickthrough link. You can locate the engine and the wheel to that red sticker on the fender. The front of the engine isn't quite behind the front edge of the rim, it isn't even close to behind the axle.
The stiffness bar is just about in line with the front edge of the red sticker, and also just about in line with the front edge of the engine. But the front edge of the red sticker goes beyond the axle, beyond the lugnuts and almost to the furthest front edge of the rim. In order for the engine to be behind the axle, it would have to roughly be behind ALL of the lugnuts, and instead it isn't behind even a single one.
mk 9:57AM (5/27/2008)
Front-mid engined cars do not necessarily put the whole engine behind the axle line.
It merely qualifies by having the engine's center of gravity behind the axle hub line.
That is a bit of a weak definition, compared to a traditional rearward "mid-engine" definition... but not everything is ideal.
Personally, I think the whole thing is a bit "meh" at this point, anyway. 200k for an overpriced, WAY overhyped Toyota... Thanks, but I'll buy an Aston, or Ferrari for that money, not a Toyota or a fancy Toyota.
One can make the case for the GT-R being ground-breaking for performance per dollar, despite it being ugly as sin. Other than being late, what does this car have to justify it's price, lateness, or hype? not much that I can see.
If you want a V10, why not a real mid-engined Gallardo? Or a left-over Viper and an Audi, for that matter.
Johnny 5:53PM (5/26/2008)
I wonder why the ideal bank is 72 degrees? Whats with 72?
I know best for V6 is 60 degrees. 60 is one third of 180. It makes sense.
V8 is usually 90 degrees or one have of 180. V4 is also 90 degrees ideally.
V12 is again 60 degrees for ideal smoothness. Makes sense since a V12 is two V6s.
I also know of one V6 that was 120 degrees. Very flat. Almost like a subaru engine but not quite flat.
But how do you come up with 72?
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Johnny 5:57PM (5/26/2008)
I just picked up a calculator and divided 360 degrees which is a full circle or crank into 72 and what do you know? I got 5.
A round number!. I thought 360 would not divide into anything round to give you 72 but it does.
Which means a V10 fires two cylinders at once giving you 5 dual power strokes every 72 degrees. Now it makes sense.
Derek 6:03PM (5/26/2008)
Actually, a V10 would fire ONE cylinder at a time every 72 degrees. Each cylinder in a four stroke engine only fires every other revolution.
Simon 6:05PM (5/26/2008)
As far as I know no production V10 on earth is 72 degrees.
The Viper is 90 degrees.
The V10 in Ford is also 90 degrees because its a 5.4 V8 with two cylinders added to the end to make it 6.8 V10.
The V10 in Audi is also a 90 degree 4.2 V8 with two cylinders added.
The M5 M6 V10 is also 90 degrees in order to spawn the V8 for the M3.
Even though company CEOs know 72 is better they get CHEAP and make it 90.
Only racecars like Hondas 3.0 V10 are 72 degrees.
Val 6:53PM (5/26/2008)
You divide 720 degrees by the number of cylinders, so it is 720/10=72. A V12 is perfectly balanced at any angle, since it has two banks of six cylinders, each of which is also perfectly balanced. Anything else for a V10 or a V8 requres balancing counter-rotating shafts.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V12_engine
^FourthDimensionGod^ 6:55PM (5/26/2008)
V10's from Formula 1 one cars a few years back were 72 degrees.
MikeW 12:18PM (5/27/2008)
A 72 degree Vee allows for even firing without splitting the crankshaft journals.
Derek 5:59PM (5/26/2008)
This whole "front-mid engine" classification has always been a bit of a stretch for me, but if it is "almost" behind the front axle and not entirely behind doesn't that just make it front engined? I mean, most F/R cars have the engine "almost" behind the front axle.
The car looks pretty good though.
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Daniel 6:48PM (5/26/2008)
Like the 4-door coupe haha
why not the LS2LS7? 9:37PM (5/26/2008)
Front mid-engined isn't a terribly useful classification anyway. Yes, it's better to have the engine behind the front axle, it helps with weight distribution. BMW puts the engine in a similar location to this in their cars, as does nearly every race car, for example the engine in a C6.R is several inches further back than in a stock Corvette.
But most mid-engine cars have the engine right on top or in front of the rear axle. This is useful, because the rear of the car moves around less than the front. When you turn the wheel to dart back and forth, the front moves much more to the back. So a (conventional) mid-engine car ends up a lot "dartier" than a front engined car. A mid front-engined car doesn't have this advantage.