The $400,000 Lexus

[pauldun170]

http://jalopnik.com/5386057/lexus-lf...tely-uncovered

[101lifts2]

Bleh...

[Homeslice]

Front end looks ok, rear end looks cartoonish.

[RACER X]

[YOUTUBE]kn6sj-Dgdnk[/YOUTUBE]





















Even in our gilded age of $5 coffee libations and $10,000 plasma TVs, the price shocks like a hornet sting: a Toyota that costs... nearly $400,000.

True, the limited-edition, two-seat, rear-drive LFA supercar, due to appear here in early 2011, will hide its Toyota roots behind the velvet rope of its maker's Lexus brand, but the sticker is staggering nonetheless. The most expensive model in the current Lexus portfolio, the LS 600h hybrid luxury sedan, starts at $106,910.

"The LFA is a halo car for the F marque," says national manager for Lexus Advanced Business Development Paul Rohovsky, referring to the Lexus F performance division (think "AMG Mercedes") behind the IS F sport sedan. Indeed, Rohovsky is candid: "The LFA will raise passion for the brand, an admitted Lexus shortcoming," he says.

How do you inject "passion" into a lineup encompassing supremely competent but generally narcotic offerings like the RX 350 sport/ute and even the vaunted LS 460 premium sedan? To Toyota's way of thinking, you do a cannonball right into the pool currently occupied by the likes of Ferrari, Lamborghini, Aston Martin, and Porsche.

Mind you, Toyota isn't diving in naked. "I have spent one-third of my career working on this single car," says LFA chief engineer Haruhiko Tanahashi, evidence not only of Tanahashi's tenacity but also of the LFA's unusually long gestation. Born of a clean-sheet concept etched in 2000, the first teaser car (then named LF-A) appeared at the 2005 Detroit show. Two years later came a revised concept; by then, camouflaged LF-A prototypes were making regular blitzes around the Nürburgring. Shadowy details emerged: Toyota was building a monster.

As inspiration, Tanahashi turned to Toyota's Formula 1 racing program, then playing to 3.0-liter V-10 regulations. So it was that the team sculpted an all-new, naturally aspirated V-10, this one a 4.8-liter with a 72-degree bank angle (optimal for smooth firing with a five-throw crank), dry-sump lubrication to lower the center of gravity (no giant under-engine oil pan), and an individual throttle body for each cylinder. Though it can't match an F1 car for revs, the LFA V-10 still spins like Karl Rove on a Tilt-A-Whirl: Redline is 9000 rpm. And while relatively compact and light, the engine screams with 552 horsepower at 8700 rpm.

Like AMG powerplants, each LFA V-10 will be handbuilt by one man. In fact, there are two; both are employees of Yamaha (which also designed the V-10's heads). Each man will finish an engine every two days.

As you might expect, the six-speed transmission (a rear-mounted transaxle) is a paddle-shift auto-clutch manual, but, likely due to manufacturing dictates fixed long ago, it's a single-clutch unit -- not a contemporary dual-clutch design. No slouch at spin himself, Tanahashi says, "I wanted the more natural shifting feel of a regular manual."

The LFA first materialized in aluminum. But when even the light alloy didn't meet Tanahashi's fastidious weight targets, he largely scrapped it and opted instead for carbon-fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP). The final LFA chassis sports a CFRP central tub with aluminum subframes front and rear; the package is wrapped in carbon-fiber bodywork. Total weight savings versus aluminum: about 220 pounds. All CFRP work is performed in-house. It doesn't hurt that Toyota has a long history in textiles, but switching from sweaters to weaving carbon fiber required lavish expenditures in tech and tools. (Look for future Lexus CFRP as Toyota monitizes its investment.)

The LFA rides on an aluminum suspension, dual-control arms up front and a multilink setup at the rear. Steering features electric power assist so as not to deplete a dollop of engine output.

The cockpit is a feast of carbon fiber, leather, metal, and Alcantara. It's all beautifully executed, if for the most part conventional (on the central console sits the same haptic mouse-like controller you'll find in, say, a Lexus RX). That is, until you see the primary instrument display: Behind the wheel lies what appears to be an attractive analog tachometer-except it's a color TFT-LCD illusion. When you select one of the four driving-mode switches-normal, auto, wet, or sport-suddenly the tach changes in scale and color (i.e., from black to all white with a thick redline in sport mode). Or push another switch and the tach...glides out of the way to reveal a host of digital information beneath. Extreme cool. Tanahashi denies that he opted for the LCD simply for the wow factor: "At first we tried an analog tachometer. But the V-10 revs so fast, the tach needle couldn't keep up!"

Toyota supplied two LFA prototypes for drives across the German autobahn -- plus hot laps on the ultimate proving ground: the 13-mile Nordschleife. Only two months earlier, I'd driven the new Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG Gullwing around the same "Green Hell," so I was especially keen to sample and compare this rival LFA.

[AquaPython]

looks like a riced out celica

[shmike]

The outside looks like the bastard child of a Gallardo and a Skyline. Not in a good way.

The inside looks like an M6 raped an R8. Not in a good way.

[Rider]

For less cash I'd rather have a Carrera GT.

[z06boy]

Originally Posted by shmike

The outside looks like the bastard child of a Gallardo and a Skyline. Not in a good way.

The inside looks like an M6 raped and R8. Not in a good way.

It sorta does.

Originally Posted by Rider

For less cash I'd rather have a Carrera GT.

Me too !!

[unknownroad]

Originally Posted by RACER X

Tanahashi denies that he opted for the LCD simply for the wow factor: "At first we tried an analog tachometer. But the V-10 revs so fast, the tach needle couldn't keep up!"

Uh huh. And i bet the phrase "Fucking A!" never crossed their minds when they were coming up with the name, either.

[pauldun170]

The gauges and engine note are great.

From certain angles it has presence...

It's competitors float around the 160K-300K

Audi R8 V10 = 160K,
Lambo Gallardo = 200K
Ferrari F430 = 190K
911 Turbo = 160K

From a marketing standpoint,

Build 50 cars.
Sell 30 of em off to the usual suspects in hollywood, Caymans Islands and the persian gulf who will buy ANY new supercar just to say they have one in the collection. The rest can float around the car show racket for a few years and other media events. Toyota writes off the whole program as a huge loss.

Take a hit by lowering the price to the 100K-200K range. Set a target production run of x amount of cars over 4 years. Target the usual demographic.

Or they can just put it out there for 1/2 a mil.
At least a few sheiks will buy them.