2011 Lexus LFA

There’s no denying that the blazingly fast Lexus LFA is an exactingly engineered car.  With 10 years of development that included substantial input from Yamaha Motor on its V10 motor, the LFA offers race-inspired weight distribution with its rear-placed dual radiators and battery. 

Despite being a badass ride, the car is a bit of an enigma. Consider this: if you build a Ferrari-beater almost twice as expensive as the genuine article, but you design it to look like the ultimate tuner car, will the Prancing Horse’s millionaires still be interested? If you devise the whiniest, fastest, most awesome Japanese track machine this side of the Hayabusa engine, but you charge more than a quarter million for it, will anybody that actually loves tuner cars be able to afford it? Or, to invert the classic line from the Kevin Costner/James Earl Jones baseball movie Field of Dreams, if you build it, will they come?

Weekend track warriors from both the tuner car set and the Ferrari Cavallino crowd will doubtlessly be awestruck by the LFA’s performance. Lexus’s first-ever supercar left me weak in the knees after a few extraordinary laps. Just sitting in the cockpit lets you know you’re about to undertake an unforgettable experience in motorsports engineering. The low slung, orthopedically-designed, leather-wrapped racing seats envelop the back and legs for optimum immobilization, a suggestion of the lateral G’s soon to follow. A small steering wheel with a flattened bottom welcomes input, while a hooded dash console consisting primarily of an LCD screen displays one large digital gauge that communicates info at a quick glance. Huge padded seatbelts that contain their own airbags simultaneously offer comforting security while leaving one to wonder why an airbag in the seatbelt? Really, how fast can this car go?

If you build a Ferrari-beater almost twice as expensive as the genuine article, but you design it to look like the ultimate tuner car, will the Prancing Horse’s millionaires still be interested? Plenty fast, as it turns out. Truth be told, I was so engrossed in executing the turns through the Speedway’s infield course and acclimating to the car’s tight handling, its floor-mounted forged aluminum pedals, and its 0.2-second shifting 6-speed paddle actuated transaxle (all the while keeping the gas as floored as I knew how), that I never even thought to glance up at the speedometer to see just how fast I was going.  

Not as fast, I’m quite sure, as my introductory lap as a passenger with Lexus race driver Scott Pruett behind the wheel. It’s much easier to stare down at the instrument panel when you’re sitting in the right hand seat. So as Pruett nimbly whipped through the turns, slapping me side to side within the wide harness’ comforting restraint, I watched the digital speedometer leap up to 178 mph through the straightaways and then temporarily dip down to a meek 135 mph through the turns. Now I’m no amusement park expert, but I’m reasonably certain that’s a more thrilling rollercoaster ride than anything Six Flags has to offer.

Like the stuff of tuner car legend, the naturally aspirated 4.8-liter V10 wails with a high-pitched intensity that amply demonstrates Yamaha’s involvement in the project. Developing 552 horses at 8,700 rpm (with a redline of 9,000), the LFA reportedly hits 62 mph from standstill in 3.7 seconds, and a top speed of 202 mph. So smitten was the LFA’s design team with the engine’s sound, and the note of the signature central-stacked triple exhaust pipes, that they actually funneled in the automotive audio into the cabin for the benefit of the driver’s overall experience.

As with any great technological device, some of the LFA’s goodies only begin to show themselves at opportune moments. A visual demonstration is offered by the large rear spoiler wing, which automatically deploys at 55 mph for improved downforce. Sonically speaking, an exhaust baffle that opens a resonance chamber at or above 3,000 rpm adds a punctuating cough to every spirited stomp of the accelerator.

Handling and safety integration display a similarly high degree of engineering and design. While the car’s optimal weight balance (48% front, 52% rear) ensures that the LFA turns at speed in predictable ways that will never get the driver in too much trouble, a centralized system of dampers, anti-lock brakes, and wheelspin and stability monitoring called VDIM (Vehicle Dynamics Integrated Management) guarantees that the car never gets squirrelly, even if the driver is intentionally trying to dislodge the car from its assured grip.

The gifted driver Pruett, who garnered Lexus a 2008 Rolex Sportscar Championship and a first place finish at the 2008 Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona, was most impressed by this last feature. Maneuvering the car deftly with, but a hint of the potential violence that underlies all high-speed driving, Pruett twisted through an infield course of cones, even managing to get the back end to slide out slightly during one particularly hard and fast turn. The fact that the rear track skidded by just a hair during the significant lateral duress suggested that if the intentional attempts of a professional driver to oversteer the car could not do much to shake its grip, then most amateurs would be hard pressed to do so accidentally. Or as Pruett put it, “What really impresses me about this car is that it won’t get its owner killed.” And in an age when the ability to afford a track-proficient road car is often incorrectly assumed to equal the ability to drive such a car, that’s a good thing!

What really impresses me about this car is that it won’t get its owner killed.If you build a Ferrari-beater almost twice as expensive as the genuine article, but you design it to look like the ultimate tuner car, will the Prancing Horse’s millionaires still be interested? Though precious few of them will ever be able to overcome the LFA’s mammoth $375,000 price tag, tuner car teenagers and twenty-somethings will no doubt gawk at the car’s signature Japanese lines. One would like to think it was more a measure of conscious choice than lack of ability that the LFA came out looking like a Celica on steroids, all scoops and wedges, than a classic European supercar, which is generally more predicated on lusty curves, clean surfacing and delicate proportions. As with any self-respecting track car, the LFA was engineered with extreme weight reduction in mind, which was most centrally achieved through the car’s complex Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastic body. A statement in Japanese futurism that looks as if it may abruptly transform into a Decepticon, the LFA’s shell of functional cooling vents and aerodynamic ridges was built entirely in-house by Toyota; an indication of the manufacturer’s obsession with making sure that its vision was executed as precisely as possible. The hyperactive design is complemented by high intensity bi-xenon headlamps, LED brake lights, and 20-inch, 10-spoke forged aluminum wheels that are anchored by 2-piece carbon ceramic brakes, whose 15-inch front rotors abruptly and confidently bring the LFA back down to earthly speeds.

Max Torque: 354 lb.-ft. at 6,800 rpm

Acceleration: 0-62 mph in 3.7 seconds

Max Speed: 202 mph