Autocar first to get a crack at wheeltime in the Lexus LF-A. Sort of.
Lexus LF-A race car - click above for a high res image gallery
It seems as if Lexus has been working on the LF-A supercar forever. Or at least six years. It's been shown in three different concept forms, including a convertible, at auto shows since 2005 and it has twice participated in the Nürburgring 24. Toyota has never publicly confirmed whether it will actually produce the LF-A, although britain's Autocar now reports that the super-Lexus will go on sale in October at a price estimated at £250,000, or nearly half a million dollars.
Until now, no one outside of Toyota's test and race drivers has actually driven the LF-A. Lexus brought the LF-A racer to the Goodwood Festival of Speed last week and Autocar got to sample it briefly on a rainy track. With a 5.0-liter V10 putting out over 500 horsepower, the 3,300-pound LF-A certainly has performance to spare. The V10 apparently really comes to life above 5,000 rpm. If (and that's a really big if) the LF-A is produced, it might only be a limited run of 500 units. Given Toyota's losses and the current economic environment, it's anyone's guess whether it'll happen, but we may find out at the Tokyo Motor Show this fall. Hat tip to RDS
Gallery: 2009 Lexus LF-A race car
[Source: Autocar]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
oZone 7:45PM (7/11/2009)
Half a million for a souped up Lexus? Those that have the money for this kind of thing will pass most definitely.
Reply
dwightB 8:29PM (7/11/2009)
Anyone that would make such a blanket statement as if they have an endless knowledge of what people spend their money on, is definitely not someone with the means to afford one anyway...
Soulquarian 9:15PM (7/11/2009)
I think the same thing about people who pay over 1 Mil for a Bugatti Veyron. Who would spend that much on a souped up VW?
/sarcasm.
oZone 9:30PM (7/11/2009)
I agree, because multi-millionaire car enthusiasts that would be interested in this have better things to do than squabble with internet folk. I concur good man. If I were one of them, however, I'd turn my attention away from this overhyped automobile to something a little more substantial.
Temple 12:32AM (7/12/2009)
It ain't a half-a-million, based on today's exchange rates £250,000 is a good $100,000 off of "half-a-million" (closer to $400k); if that speculation from Autocar is correct to begin with.
Based on Autocar's rumor history, and the fact that Autoblog can't even use Google correctly to find correct exchange rates and to misquote a price the gap of a ZR-1 or GT-R; I would take this rumor with a huge grain of salt.
Sweetz 7:00PM (7/12/2009)
Disregard the make for a moment, the power and weight would seem to put it in Gallardo/F430 territory in terms of performance, both of which are under or around $250K depending on how you spec them.
What make this worth almost twice as much as those brilliant mid-engined Italians?
Perhaps the price they're quoting here is for the race spec version?
jon 7:48PM (7/11/2009)
toyota: please please please please make this car, naysayers will be plentiful, but this is looking to be an incredible car, and if its as good as it seems, you will silence the naysayers and establish yourself as a true performance manufacturer
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SimbaDogg 8:30PM (7/11/2009)
toyota is setting themselves up to fail w/ this astronomical price tag IMO. even if this thing is as fast/faster than the zr1 or even the GTR around the ring, i think theres gonna be an extremely short list of people willing to pony up $410,000 (USD) for it. i mean for the love of gah'd, i could effectively buy two zr1s, probably 3 GTRs AND the upcoming v spec. a 911 gt2, gt3, two f430s (as long as you can beat that wait list), a v12 AND v8 vantage, the list goes on...
call me a naysayer if you will, but its just a proposal that doesn't work when i look at it. when the NSX first dropped, it was the first car to give you 'super car performance' w/out having to have the super car performance mechanic on speed dial. and on top of that it was appropriately priced. a company that has VERY little motorsports history, coupled with a slim profile of production sports cars (mr2...supra) should not come out the gates pricing their car more than all the cars that are available on the market, its just plain unreasonable IMO.
shoot...if i had the cash, i think i'd rather spend my money on a murcielago lp640
dwightB 9:15PM (7/11/2009)
SimbaDogg, you actually referred to Toyota as "a company that has VERY little motorsports history"?!
Toyota has participated in and done well in the following series'...
USAC Midget / Spring Car / Silver Crown
IMSA GT / GTP Championship
24 Hours of Le Mans
NHRA Top Fuel and Nitro Funny car
World Rally Championship
NASCAR Sprint cup, Nationwide and Camping World Truck Series'
CART IndyCar World Series / IRL IndyCar Series
There is also Formula One, which they've only been in since 2002,
Hell, they even supply race engines to the Jordan, Williams, Spyker and Midland F1 teams.
Also, let's not forget the Toyota Atlantic series.
And come on now, they've been kicking ass racing trucks Off Road since 1983! The name Ivan "The Ironman" Stewart ring a bell?!
I'm sure there are even a few series' that I've forgotten in this list, but those are just the ones that came to mind when I read your comment.
They're not "strangers" to racing or performance vehicles.
SimbaDogg 10:19PM (7/11/2009)
@dwightB
ferrari, lambo, aston martin, audi > toyota (when looking at their sports heritage)
shoot, even honda > toyota when it comes to racing pedigree. and dont buy into that crap they did when they replaced honda as the engine supplier for target/chip ganassi's cart team and billed themselves as a championship supplier, even though the championship was won w/ honda motors..4 consecutive years. i'll never forget that crap (sorry i threw that in there, that was a bit unnecessary)
the4thheat 1:38AM (7/12/2009)
@simbadogg
I don't think the point of this car is to compete with those cars though.
And anyways there's plenty of other exotic cars that cost as much as several great sports cars combined, but there's still buyers for random Lamborghini's.
The people who buy LP640's don't really care that the GT-R can run the Nurburgring faster for 1/4th the price. And I think at least the LF-A will have more legitimate track ability.
I doubt it'll be $400K in the US though (Autoblog's conversion is pretty bad...the pound isn't worth 2 dollars anymore, it's not 2007) since the price is largely taxes in the UK.
Bird 10:51AM (7/13/2009)
"lambo > toyota"
Definitely not. Today's Lambo makes great sports cars, but they barely have any motorsport heritage.
zamafir 7:57PM (7/11/2009)
nice, just keep the development cars interior, there's no point in forcing customers to suffer a camry interior at this price.
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z-man 8:23PM (7/11/2009)
exactly.
dwightB 8:32PM (7/11/2009)
You do realize this car has been shown with 3 different interior variations, each one looking better than it's predecessor, right?
zamafir 8:37PM (7/11/2009)
Yup, and I also realize Infiniti really stepped it up with their concept so I'd love to see toyota do the same with this, pull an XJ, stun the world with a world class, unique, modern interior, very much akin to the effort infiniti put into their concept. To date, none of the interior shots of concept trim appear anywhere near those levels, hence my comment, and hope that toyota uses this opportunity to build a true halo car for lexus inside, as well as out.
dwightB 9:25PM (7/11/2009)
zamafir, you're comparing the interior of a car that was built with NO production intentions to one that IS. Of course the LF-A interior will pale in comparison to a vehicle that will never see a showroom floor. And in my opinion, the Essence (I'm assuming that's what you're referring to) interior isn't all that great. If anything it's far too minimal and would look horrible once real world controls and human factors come into play. Suede on a boring surface doesn't mean much to me, I see far too many custom cars with it, lol. Oh yea, and that gauge cluster? Aston Martin showed us the real world version of that with the debut of the DB9.... six years ago, lol.
zamafir 3:06AM (7/12/2009)
lol i know you relish arguing, my point is, toyota should take this halo car and step it up a notch, at least meet bmw, or if they're very bold, Audi/Bentley/Bugatti. There's no reason not to, and it would do them some good. I'm looking forward to seeing them do it, and the trickle down effect. The only thing that really bugs me about my current toyota box on wheels is the utterly abysmal interior.
anonymous j 11:20AM (7/12/2009)
"toyota should take this halo car and step it up a notch, at least meet bmw"
I hope you're not referring the interiors cause you really are just a tool then. Truth is, probably most Lexus model interiors>>>>> most BMW interiors, if not all.
In regards to your Toyotoabox, what kind of interior would you expect from an econobox? You seem to always be bashing Japanese cars yet you never seem to have anything bad to say about the German vehicles regardless of how glaringly obvious some of their shortcomings are i.e. reliability, overpriced etc etc. Hmmmm... bias much?
zamafir 11:28AM (7/12/2009)
I bash german cars all the time, i'm the only one who ranted against the a6 in the review and routinely criticize the new e class. I've not read any reviews indicating Lexus interiors are a bar above BMW, and don't personally feel they are either, in terms of design. I don't think BMW designs remarkable interiors, but at least they don't feel as plebeian as toyotas, as most of those fitted to lexus products do. Sure, I'm biased, my first car was an audi, since then i've driven mostly audis and bmws for fun. There's a reason every car review for the last decade or so has championed audi's interiors as the best in the industry, and growing into the car culture with that as a BASE standard will most certainly someone's perspective vs someone who grew up with toyotas, remained organic in their purchasing, and graduated to lexus products.
Your view that lexus produces better interiors from BMW isn't commonplace in the cannon of car literature, the view that audi produces the best is, I happen to agree with both of those sentiments. Why not look past me and champion the idea that Lexus can raise the bar a notch with this car, finally. Lord knows the msrp will be high enough.