What is it?
It's the supercar we never thought we'd see, even though we've seen it competing at the Nürburgring two years in a row. Lexus has had the LFA on the cards for nearly nine years, so the weight of expectation is stratospheric for this one. Oh, and there's the small matter of its significantly more that £300,000 price tag.
Why's it here?
Because Toyota wanted to build a supercar, basically, which would be chalk to the
Prius's cheese. Interestingly, we've already found that the LFA is far from a luxury supercar tourer, despite wearing the Lexus L, instead serving up razor sharp hypercar performance and feel from its 552bhp V10 shrouded in a carbon monocoque.
To abate the environmentalists (and the accountants), Lexus also wheeled out the LF-Ch hybrid again - following its
Frankfurt debut. The BMW 1 Series rival will no doubt get a couple more outings before hitting a show in production guise, probably early next year.
Show stopper or floor filler?
A show stopper for shizzle, as the rappers who will largely make up the 500-strong LFA owner collective will say. Lexus's cachet among the US hip hop fraternity is legendary, so with this price tag and rarity, most of the LFA's limited production run could be found on episodes of MTV Cribs or MTV Base videos, probably next to Cadillac Escalades sitting on 24-inch chrome spinners. Ya dig?
Click here for our first drive of the 2011 Lexus LFA
Mark Nichol - 21 Oct 2009