- Joined
- 4 October 2002
- Messages
- 569
I'm skeptical of the £250,000
"This is the Lexus LF-A, a supercar that was first created by Toyota as far back as 2003. From late 2007 LF-As began testing at the Nurburgring regularly and from 2008 prototypes were entered into the 24 hour race at the famous circuit.
Apart from its stripped out, roll-caged interior and its rough and ready racing-logoed exterior, there is not a great deal of difference, technically, between this car and the one that will go on sale in October.
It will be limited to just 500 cars and cost around £250,000. That’s more than a Ferrari 599 GTB, which in conceptual terms is the LF-A’s most obvious rival.
Buyers will get plenty of performance, however. Toyota says this 5.0-litre motor will have “more than 500bhp” but unofficially the figure is nearer 550bhp – with a rev limit of 9000rpm in the production car.
The gearbox will be a paddle shift six-speed sequential manual with a transaxle over the rear axle for perfect 50/50 weight distribution. Suspension is by double wishbones and coil over dampers at the front with a multi-link arrangement and, again, coil over dampers at the back.
A full limited slip diff sourced from “within the Toyota group” will also appear, and the brakes will “not be steel.” So unless Toyota has s developed a new line in wooden brake discs that means carbon ceramic rotors will be sit behind the magnesium alloy 20-inch wheels.
The chassis-tub will hit the headlines hardest, though, because the whole shebang is made from carbon composite, which will provide the LFA with one of the stiffest shells in production car history. The outer body skin will be made from aluminium, which will not only protect the quality of carbon composite beneath but also allow Lexus to produce a typically exquisite paint finish.
What’s it like?
Sitting inside the LF-A in the Goodwood pitlane, waiting for the rain to abate, it’s obvious that once you strip away the racing fripperies, this is actually already a production interior. It feels like a road car that’s been stripped and turned into a racer.
Like the race car, the road car will weigh 1500kg – the rollcage and racing kit weight the same as a road car interior. That means 550bhp and 1500kg, which means 366.6bhp per tonne, only a fraction less than the 373bhp per tonne of the Ferrari 599. So it’s quick, then, with a capital Q.
The V10 doesn’t explode into life but neither is it what you’d call quiet. What it is, is almost entirely vibration-free when I blip the thottle, which is surprising considering the engine is effectively bolted to the chassis beneath the bonnet.
There’s a clonk from the transaxle when first gear engages, and as I pull away the ride immediately feels firm but refined, not at all racing car hard. Another faint but disappointing clonk as second and third are selected. A bit more throttle introduces a lot more noise into the cockpit; a cross between a 1980s Quattro and an F1 car from a few years ago, with a bit of Lamborghini-style crackling on the overrun for good measure.
It’s so wet I’m a bit reticent about nailing the thing wide open to begin with, not until fourth gear is selected at least, but when I do it is so immediately obvious that there is traction, and lots of it, I down-change to third and hold on tight, at which point the LF-A goes fairly berserk.
Down the back straight it feels a) very, very quick beyond 5000rpm, b) sounds absolutely fantastic at 8300rpm, and c) accelerates so violently towards the still soaking wet horizon that it’s not long before I bale out and brush the brakes, at which point it becomes equally obvious how well it stops.
Everything the LF-A does, the way it accelerates, the way it brakes, turns in and then settles in a corner, stems from how little it weighs. And how stiff it is in the bodyshell. Even though visually it’s quite a big beast, there’s a quite spooky lack of inertia to its actions. You turn in, it goes. You brush the brake pedal, it stops, without any particular sense of weight being transferred laterally or from front to rear.
And even in the wet it is just blindingly fast across the ground during the few brief laps I get behind the wheel, with a real sense of fluidity to its handling, if not its transmission which, to be honest, still needs a little work.
Should I buy one?
At the moment around 20 are earmarked to reach the UK, starting in early 2010, so you’ll need to move fast.
If I couldn’t set a faster lap time in this car around Goodwood than I could in a Ferrari 599 I’d be prepared to make a genuine attempt to eat my trousers.
It’s that well sorted, that quick, that good. And the meantime, roll on October, when the production car will at long last go on sale."
More pics on this site.
http://www.autocar.co.uk/CarReviews/FirstDrives/Lexus-LF-A-5.0/241363/
"This is the Lexus LF-A, a supercar that was first created by Toyota as far back as 2003. From late 2007 LF-As began testing at the Nurburgring regularly and from 2008 prototypes were entered into the 24 hour race at the famous circuit.
Apart from its stripped out, roll-caged interior and its rough and ready racing-logoed exterior, there is not a great deal of difference, technically, between this car and the one that will go on sale in October.
It will be limited to just 500 cars and cost around £250,000. That’s more than a Ferrari 599 GTB, which in conceptual terms is the LF-A’s most obvious rival.
Buyers will get plenty of performance, however. Toyota says this 5.0-litre motor will have “more than 500bhp” but unofficially the figure is nearer 550bhp – with a rev limit of 9000rpm in the production car.
The gearbox will be a paddle shift six-speed sequential manual with a transaxle over the rear axle for perfect 50/50 weight distribution. Suspension is by double wishbones and coil over dampers at the front with a multi-link arrangement and, again, coil over dampers at the back.
A full limited slip diff sourced from “within the Toyota group” will also appear, and the brakes will “not be steel.” So unless Toyota has s developed a new line in wooden brake discs that means carbon ceramic rotors will be sit behind the magnesium alloy 20-inch wheels.
The chassis-tub will hit the headlines hardest, though, because the whole shebang is made from carbon composite, which will provide the LFA with one of the stiffest shells in production car history. The outer body skin will be made from aluminium, which will not only protect the quality of carbon composite beneath but also allow Lexus to produce a typically exquisite paint finish.
What’s it like?
Sitting inside the LF-A in the Goodwood pitlane, waiting for the rain to abate, it’s obvious that once you strip away the racing fripperies, this is actually already a production interior. It feels like a road car that’s been stripped and turned into a racer.
Like the race car, the road car will weigh 1500kg – the rollcage and racing kit weight the same as a road car interior. That means 550bhp and 1500kg, which means 366.6bhp per tonne, only a fraction less than the 373bhp per tonne of the Ferrari 599. So it’s quick, then, with a capital Q.
The V10 doesn’t explode into life but neither is it what you’d call quiet. What it is, is almost entirely vibration-free when I blip the thottle, which is surprising considering the engine is effectively bolted to the chassis beneath the bonnet.
There’s a clonk from the transaxle when first gear engages, and as I pull away the ride immediately feels firm but refined, not at all racing car hard. Another faint but disappointing clonk as second and third are selected. A bit more throttle introduces a lot more noise into the cockpit; a cross between a 1980s Quattro and an F1 car from a few years ago, with a bit of Lamborghini-style crackling on the overrun for good measure.
It’s so wet I’m a bit reticent about nailing the thing wide open to begin with, not until fourth gear is selected at least, but when I do it is so immediately obvious that there is traction, and lots of it, I down-change to third and hold on tight, at which point the LF-A goes fairly berserk.
Down the back straight it feels a) very, very quick beyond 5000rpm, b) sounds absolutely fantastic at 8300rpm, and c) accelerates so violently towards the still soaking wet horizon that it’s not long before I bale out and brush the brakes, at which point it becomes equally obvious how well it stops.
Everything the LF-A does, the way it accelerates, the way it brakes, turns in and then settles in a corner, stems from how little it weighs. And how stiff it is in the bodyshell. Even though visually it’s quite a big beast, there’s a quite spooky lack of inertia to its actions. You turn in, it goes. You brush the brake pedal, it stops, without any particular sense of weight being transferred laterally or from front to rear.
And even in the wet it is just blindingly fast across the ground during the few brief laps I get behind the wheel, with a real sense of fluidity to its handling, if not its transmission which, to be honest, still needs a little work.
Should I buy one?
At the moment around 20 are earmarked to reach the UK, starting in early 2010, so you’ll need to move fast.
If I couldn’t set a faster lap time in this car around Goodwood than I could in a Ferrari 599 I’d be prepared to make a genuine attempt to eat my trousers.
It’s that well sorted, that quick, that good. And the meantime, roll on October, when the production car will at long last go on sale."
More pics on this site.
http://www.autocar.co.uk/CarReviews/FirstDrives/Lexus-LF-A-5.0/241363/
