The Fall of a L(FA)egend

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Today we pay tribute to the last Lexus LFA, a Nurburgring Edition, that rolled off of the production line yesterday, the 17th of December.

The last Lexus LFA Nurburgring Edition being rolled off the line Source

Beginning design for the LFA in early 2000 and kicking off production about a decade later on December 15, 2010, the LFA was only destined to be hand-built 500 times, making no more than 20 models per month and one car per day.  Given the extremity of the figures associated with this car in terms of production, it's no wonder that this was one super Toyota and not just your average Camry.

Nurburgring LFA Source

The engine was designed with a 4.8 L V10 engine to accomodate high rev speeds with a relatively small displacement for a super car and still achieve large amounts of torque thanks to ten cylinders.  In fact, the engine revved so quickly to 10,000 RPM's that an analog tachometer would not cut it.  Quite cool, indeed.

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And despite having the "roar of an angel" according to Toyota Engineers, the car sported much more than a highly advanced engine with heads designed by Yamaha (once again).

Lexus LFA Chassis Source

No, this isn't your average supercar with an all-aluminum body like the revered Honda NSX.  This is a car with a carbon-fiber chassis which not only helps to contribute to the light curb weight of 3,263 lbs and a weight-to-power ratio of 5.9 lbs/hp!

Chassis of the Nurburgring Edition LFASource

With all of that being said, it's no wonder this car was so impressive (and that's beside the production numbers).  With about 10 years of engineering put into this car and numerous concept models-- it's probably safe to say that Toyota will never design anything cooler.  Challenge accepted, Toyota?

Until next time, thanks for reading.

In Lexus's Repetitive, Recent Attempts to Make Something Cool...

They have made a GS Coupe Concept.

They have made a $375,000 supercar with a v10 engine that revs so quickly, an analog tachometer cannot display the RPMs in an adequate fashion.

And now another overpriced attempt at something that makes sense, but in my eyes makes no sense whatsoever: the Lexus LF-LC Concept.

I'm sure Lexus engineers thought that with a set of angry bee nest-esque grilles and some "infotainment centers" built into their dashboards, they could make a couple of sweet cars!  But I'm not buying it.

Show me something more than a complex instrument cluster that looks like that of an alien space ship's.

Show me something more than a cool looking interior with a sweet computer built into it.

Show me a car, guys.  Show me a freaking car.  Don't take a Scion FR/Subaru BRZ chassis, load it with a bunch of computer parts, have your NASA Rocket Engineers make up some cool tail-lights that look like Mars, and confuse the hell out of me!

I'm young, and maybe that's why I don't understand these things.  Lexus is aimed at the successful business man-- a man with money in his pocket and people to impress.

Lexus, impress my hands when I turn the wheel.  Impress my gut as I fly through corners.  Flatten my butt cheeks with sprinting acceleration.  Do something like the first SC or the second generation GS.  Something with class, but something that's fast with multi-link suspension, front and back, and a decent engine like the 2JZ.  Yamaha-produced and all without the 375,000 dollar price tag.

Kudos to Toyota for sticking to the script.  Let's see if this new car will impress the public at the Detroit Auto Show.