The 2009 24 Hours of Nurburgring was a forgettable one for the Lexus L-FA prototype – it burned to the ground – so it wasn’t all that hard to assume that the car is headed back to Nurburgring for some unfinished business.
Unlike last year, this year’s 24 Hours of Nurburgring competition will see Lexus bringing a standard production of the LF-A, which is the first time the V10-powered supercar will participate in a racing competition of any kind.
Two LF-As will be on hand for the four-day event and Lexus, together with Gazoo Racing, is leaving no stones unturned as far as preparations are concerned. The team will be comprised of Hiromu Naruse, Toyota’s pre-eminent test driver, who will lead a team that’s made up of four Japanese drivers and three German counterparts including six-time winner of the Super Taikyu Endurance Series, Takayuki Kinoshita; Akira Ida, overall winner of the Tokachi 24 Hours in 1995 and 2007; Armin Hahne, winner of the Spa 24 Hours in 1982 and 1983, and Jochen Krumbach, who came in second overall in the 2008 Nürburgring 24 Hours.
The Lexus LF-A is already an exclusive super car in its own right. And as it the case when exclusivity begets more exclusivity, Lexus has announced that they are releasing a new track edition LF-A optimized for circuit driving.
Called the Nürburgring Track Edition in reference to the world-famous race track in Germany where the legend of the LF-A came to life, this special edition LF-A will be distinguished by a fixed rear wing, larger front spoiler, sports tuned suspension and high grip tires.
The Lexus LF-A is powered by a 4.8 liter V10 that delivers a maximum output of 560 HP, but for the LF-A Nurburgring Track Edition the output will be raised to 570 hp. Also this special edition will be offered in only four colors, including black, matte black, vibrant orange
it goes without saying that Lexus struck gold in its first foray into the realm of the super car; a remarkable achievement considering that before the LF-A came to life, the words ’Lexus’ and ’supercar’ were as synonymous to each other as peanut butter and carrots.
Monaco’s no stranger to supercars, which is we’re not really surprised to see Ferraris or Lamborghinis frolicking around the ultra expensive sovereign city-state in South Western Europe. It’s precisely why Monaco has rightfully earned the nickname as "a billionaire’s playground".
Then again, we’re bound to make certain exceptions and this is one of those times, especially since the car that was photographed by Flickr member Kyter MC just happens to be the recently-released Lexus LF-A. It just goes to show that despite the sheer volume of supercars riding around in Monaco, people will still stop and take a good look at the LF-A.
Straighten out your bank accounts, fellas. Lexus has officially announced the US pricing for the LF-A supercar.
The magic number to bring home one of the most eagerly-anticipated supercars in recent memory is $375,000, and if you have that kind of money to spare for an LF-A, you also avail for yourself the privilege of choosing between 3 different configurations, 30 exterior colors, six brake caliper colors, and 12 interior colors.
The Lexus LFA is powered by a 4.8-liter V10 engine that generates 552 hp at 8,700 rpm and 354 lb.-ft. of peak torque at 6,800 rpm. The engine is mated to a unique six-speed Automated Sequential Gearbox (ASG) with paddle shifters that enables ultra-quick gear shifts (0.2 seconds) with four driving modes – AUTO, SPORT, NORMAL and WET for exceptional versatility.
The supercar accelerates from 0 to 60 in 3.6 seconds and achieves a top speed of 202 mph. Production is set to begin in December of this year so that should give all of you ample time to ring up your piggy banks and save as much money as you can because chances are, when you do buy an LF-A, you’re going to need as much of what’s left in your account for, you know, the rest of your life.
When it comes supercars like the Lexus LF-A, it’s hard to get extremely tired of it. So despite the fact that we’ve seen videos of the LF-A blazing around a racing circuit, we still get worked up when a new video of the car comes out.
This one, courtesy of the folks from EVO, has the LF-A doing what it does best out on the road. Once again, it’s Chris Harris – boy, that guy is lucky – sitting behind the wheel of the supercar. As drives the LF-A, he tries his best to describe how the car reacts out on the road and judging by the giddiness awe-struck look on his face as he brings the LF-A up to pace, we’re guessing that he’s enjoying the ride immensely.
In a shocking turn of events that has caught everyone by surprise, the interest surrounding the Lexus LF-A has gone through the roof. Sense the sarcasm there?
The truth is that nobody’s really surprised to know that Lexus’ very first supercar has become such a hot item ever since it was unveiled at the Tokyo Motor Show; it’s even conceivable that the all 500 units of the car could be snatched up in just a few months. In Japan, all 165 units of the LF-A have already been accounted for with the remaining 335 cars, which will be allocated to 55 other countries around the world, likewise generating a ton of interest from prospective buyers.
It goes without saying that the LF-A has turned into one of the most sought-after supercars in recent times, which, according to Devshi Varshani, personal liaison manager of LF-A sales, is hardly surprising considering the tremendous outpouring of interest the car has generated is a testament to the amount of hard work Lexus has put into their very first super car. "The level of interest we have witnessed reinforces just what an exceptional car the LFA is,” he said. “Even though few people have even seen the car in the metal, let alone experienced its breathtaking performance, it has quickly achieved the status of a truly rare and highly sought-after machine."
Despite being limited to just 500 units, the Lexus LF-A has been, hands down, one of the most popular supercars to come out in recent times.
So as you can imagine, the demand for the LF-A has been, to say the least, off the charts, so much so that even before the car hit dealerships in its native land in Japan, all the 165 units of the LF-A allotted for the country have already sold out.
While the coupe version of the LF-A has been turning heads left and right, rumors about a roadster version of the Lexus super car has been running the mills for the past couple of months. As a result of enormous clamoring for an LF-A roadster, the folks over at Autogespot decided to render the supercar to see what it would look like once it loses its roof.
Lexus has still to make an announcement on whether or not the LF-A will produce a roadster offspring but judging from the renderings done by Autogespot, the LF-A convertible is just as - maybe even more - mouth-watering than the hardtop version.
Check out the rendered images to see for yourself.
The Lexus LF-A has already established itself as one of the fastest machines on the planet, but judging from the warm reception the LF-A has received in its native land, the V10 powered Japanese super car appears to be just as fast at selling out. Reports out of the island nation claim that Lexus’ new super car is becoming such a must-have item that all 165 units that were allotted to the land of the rising sun have already been tagged, and apparently much faster than anyone expected.
Unlike the agreement on this side of the globe, Lexus won’t be selling the LF-A in North America but rather leasing them to prospective customers, the Japanese are fair game like sushi on a Saturday night. This means that if you find yourself in Tokyo with enough dough in tow, you can buy one of the 500 LF-A’s outright. As long as you know that they are being priced at 37.5 million Yen each, a number that translates to roughly $410,000. So now that 165 of the LF-As have been gobbled up, it remains to be seen as to just how fast the remaining 335 cars will be snatched up. It suffices to say that it looks like Lexus’ new super car will be going just as fast in the dealership as on the track.
It came as no surprise when the BBC’s acclaimed automotive crew at Top Gear got behind the wheel of the all new Lexus LF-A super car. Spending over 9 years on the drawing board, the LF-A is virtually an engineer’s wet dream with a body painstakingly crafted from carbon fiber and the bark of an F1 car, however it still wears a Lexus badge, a fact that Richard Hammond had quite a hard time getting over.
Powered by a purpose built 4.8 Liter V10 that is the size of a V8 and weighs about as much as a V6, the 560 HP LF-A can rocket from 0 to 60 MPH in just 3.7 seconds and reach a top speed of 202 MPH. The super car’s interior is filled with trick items like a single large diameter digital gauge and carbon fiber steering wheel as well as a lightweight stereo system that is guaranteed to make any of the 500 lucky owners able to plop down nearly half a Million dollars for one fell like a kid in a candy store.
In an effort to gain more mainstream exposure for the LF-A, Lexus has released the first commercial of the new supercar. In a nutshell, the ad highlights the engineering and racing exploits of the LF-A, a car that the company has described as a car for "emotional sports".
The voice-over is in Japanese so we couldn’t quite figure out what he was saying. Nevertheless, the photos and the video clips pretty much summed up what the commercial is trying to relay.
Needless to say, the commercial’s treatment was pretty impressive and one particular - the one where the LF-A was taking a hot lap at the Fuji Racing Speedway with Mt. Fuji in the backdrop - was equally top-notch, at least as far as were concerned.
Picture Gallery
5 comments
RSS -
Webmaster free news |
