L-F-A. No it is not your 13-year-old sister’s favorite boy band, it’s the new Nürburgring raced, 552 horsepower, lightweight supercar from Lexus. The first ever supercar from Lexus was developed by a group of handpicked engineers for nine years with the goal of making a supreme driving encounter.
LFA LEXUS SUPERCAR SPECSDrawing upon Toyota Motor Company’s history within the textile business engineers had been able to use Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastic Construction (CFRP) to give the LFA a curb weight of only 3,263 lbs. The center section within the LFA is four times stronger and 200 lbs. lighter than a comparable aluminum body with the use of CFRP.
A specifically created V-10 engine was developed with Yamaha to power to LFA. Engineers studied Formula 1 engines at maximum revs and tuned to V-10 to deliver the very same distinctive and unmistakable sound. The modest four.8-liter V-10 produces 552 hp at 8,700 rpm and 354 lb-ft of torque at 6,800 rpm, creating an astonishing output of 117 DIN hp/liter. The four.8-liter V-10 will feature dry sump lubrication, individual throttle bodies, titanium valves and connecting rods, a magnesium alloy cylinder head cover, and a cylinder block cast within the very same foundry as Toyota F1 engine blocks.
Putting power from the front-mid mounted engine to the rear wheels is a seven-speed Automated Sequential Gearbox (ASG). A weight distribution of 48:52 is achieved with the gearbox mounted transaxle. A super-light and responsive clutch enables for shifts as fast as 0.2 seconds. Steering wheel column-mounted paddle shifters allow for driver control along with four driving modes: Auto, Sport, Typical, and Wet. Revving to the 9,000 rpm redline only takes six-tenths of a second requiring the use of a digital tachometer.
