If you’ve got a spare AU$600K (€368K) you could be one of the 500 owners of the newest Japanese supercar, the Lexus LFA. That’s right, you’ll need 600 large and worldwide production is limited to just 500 examples. Wow, that’s a lot of dosh for a first supercar effort from a Toyota that’s a little bit fancy. You could almost buy a new entry level Corolla every day for a month with that money. Hmm, on second thoughts, then, the LFA seems like the value proposition.
Okay, so well over half a million bucks—what do you get for that money? Well, first of all you get a slightly edgy looking coupé. Despite likely first impressions, I reckon this is one car that will look better in the real world, rather than the virtual one you are seeing now. You also get 412kW (552bhp) and 480Nm from the 4.8 litre V10. There’s a six speed sequential box and liberal smatterings of carbon fibre, inside and out. Stopping power is provided by carbon ceramic brakes.
Oh, yeah, almost forgot, the LFA has one of the coolest animated electronic dash clusters offered for sale yet.
The LFA weighs 1480kg and the front-mid engine layout offers a weight distribution of 48:52 per cent, front-to-rear. To put some performance numbers to all those facts, the LFA can propel itself to 100km/h in a very rapid 3.7 seconds before reaching a 325km/h v-max. That is properly quick!
The lads at Autocar have been lucky enough to flog a couple of LFAs around the Nürburgring Nordschleife and on public roads, as well. They reckon the car is beautifully put together and as a driving experience it is a pretty tidy bit of kit. Only its over-assisted steering lets the car down a bit.
Along with a heap of pics (click on an image to load wallpaper friendly super images) and the official press release you can also see a couple of YouTube clips, courtesy of Autocar. When you watch those you will see that perhaps the best thing about the LFA is the beautiful, beautiful noise its ripping V10 powerplant makes. Nine thousand revs have barely sounded better!