LF-A exotic sports car concept to be premiered at NAIAS Jan, 9th, 2005-PICS PG 3
01-09-05, 11:31 AM
#47
what a badass looking car....i'd hit it. Lexus better build this! 
01-09-05, 11:53 AM
#49
Lexus Fanatic
In line with the early spy shots and the deriving renderings, but still, I'm very impressed.
Lexus please please please bring it to production without much alteration already!!!
Lexus please please please bring it to production without much alteration already!!!
01-09-05, 12:13 PM
#56
Lexus Fanatic
Originally Posted by T.L.W.
the rear of this car 
the rest is very nice
the rear is just disturbing
the rest is very nice
the rear is just disturbing
At least it's bold and unique. If people can get used to the Bangle butt, I don't see why over time we can't get warmed up to the LF rears.
Also, I'm slightly disappointed that it still uses a V8 and not the much rumored and anticipated V10. What happened to the V10 anyway??
01-09-05, 12:24 PM
#59
Lexus Fanatic
BTW, I love that interior!! What an excellent combination of luxurious and sporty feels. Seems quite production ready too (particularly when compared to the other LF concepts). We can only hope that it sees the light of production in a not-too-distant future.
01-09-05, 12:26 PM
#60
Guest
Posts: n/a
Surprise! Lexus does a sports car with LF-A concept
WES RAYNAL
Posted Date: 1/9/05
CLICK FOR LEXUS LF-A PHOTOS
If you’re like us, you have wondered just what benefit Toyota gets from spending hundreds of millions of dollars to be smacked around by Ferrari, Williams, McLaren and Renault in Formula One. Sell more Priuses perhaps? Doubt it.
Well, wonder no more: Toyota dropped the Lexus LF-A sports car concept on the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. A sports car from stodgy old Lexus? Yup. And, as we tend to say around here, but wait, there’s more: The company claims a strong link between the concept and its move in to Formula One.
Is that for real or just public relations BS?
Toyota insists it’s for real. The company began testing its F1 prototypes in 2001 and entered the fray in 2002. Since the F1 involvement began, rumors have floated around the company was working on a two-seat road car, and one that might have supercar aspirations. And indeed Toyota designers and engineers have dreamed about doing a car such as the LF-A since the F1 program’s launch. They say today it is not so much that members of the F1 team actually spun wrenches putting together the concept car, but more that F1’s image—the notion of competing in and learning from the world’s highest form of motorsport—will be reflected in the show car.
So what exactly is the LF-A?
It is a two-seat concept Lexus hopes will raise the worldwide awareness of what used to be an American-only nameplate. In addition to the United States, the Lexus name is now used in Europe and is being introduced in home-market Japan. LF-A has another mission as well. Lexus says the car points at the luxury brand’s future styling direction, which the company refers to as L-Finesse. The L-Finesse theme will become evident in the production version of the GS, shown as a concept at last year’s Detroit auto show (AW, Jan. 19, 2004).
L-Finesse will be further driven home in a new IS, due in a year, and an all-new LS sedan, due in about a year and a half.
“L-Finesse is simplicity and elegance,” says Toyota executive vice president Jim Press. He says the exotic LF-A is worthy of the company’s F1 commitment, and wants you to think of it as a good indication of how Lexus might do a sports car.
Wahei Hirai, president of Toyota’s European design center, said the idea behind L-Finesse is to introduce a fundamental shift in Lexus design. The intention is to add some spark to Lexus’ admittedly staid styling, with designs that are “uncluttered and void of extraneous elements.
“Inside and out the focus is to avoid exaggeration,” Hirai says, “and to prioritize understated luxury that is intriguing, subtle and seamless.”
Actual work on the LF-A began a year ago, while the final shape you see here was finalized just two months ago. The show car itself is two inches shorter than a Porsche 911 with a nine-inch-longer wheelbase. At 48 inches high, it is about the same height as a Ferrari F430; at 73.2 inches wide, it splits the difference between the Mercedes-Benz SL55 and the Aston Martin DB9.
The minimalist approach is seen inside, too. There are few switches and ***** on the dash and center console, for example. There is no evidence of anything like those one-****-controls-it-all contraptions such as BMW’s iDrive or Audi’s MMI.
Will LF-A happen as a production car? Sources say there are “a lot of people inside the company who want it to, and a lot of people inside the company who don’t.” Officially Toyota says the car is being “carefully considered” for production; that if it is produced, the street car will look a lot like the concept.
Of this much we’re pretty sure: Our spy shooters and moles say the LF-A gives strong hints about a production sports car, which we’ve captured flying around the Nürburgring in tests (Dec. 27, 2004). Sources tell us a production version of either the next Supra (possibly called TXS) or a Lexus sports car, depending on which Toyota decides to build, might be shown at the Tokyo show this fall before going on sale a year later.
Show-car and production-car specs are closely guarded secrets. Toyota won’t give up suspension details, nor will it even say which end of the car the engine sits in, though further digging indicates it’s probably a mid-engine car.
The rumors alone are enough to get you excited, though: Power might be in the 500-hp range from a V10 engine of less than 5.0 liters of displacement. A V8 might be used if F1 rule changes, set for 2006, reflect that. The target weight is said to be less than 3000 pounds, with a top speed upward of 190 mph.
That’s all well and good. Of course, none of it means jack if Toyota doesn’t build the car, though insiders strongly hint it will. Keep your eyes on the Detroit show and the Tokyo show this fall.
WES RAYNAL
Posted Date: 1/9/05
CLICK FOR LEXUS LF-A PHOTOS
If you’re like us, you have wondered just what benefit Toyota gets from spending hundreds of millions of dollars to be smacked around by Ferrari, Williams, McLaren and Renault in Formula One. Sell more Priuses perhaps? Doubt it.
Well, wonder no more: Toyota dropped the Lexus LF-A sports car concept on the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. A sports car from stodgy old Lexus? Yup. And, as we tend to say around here, but wait, there’s more: The company claims a strong link between the concept and its move in to Formula One.
Is that for real or just public relations BS?
Toyota insists it’s for real. The company began testing its F1 prototypes in 2001 and entered the fray in 2002. Since the F1 involvement began, rumors have floated around the company was working on a two-seat road car, and one that might have supercar aspirations. And indeed Toyota designers and engineers have dreamed about doing a car such as the LF-A since the F1 program’s launch. They say today it is not so much that members of the F1 team actually spun wrenches putting together the concept car, but more that F1’s image—the notion of competing in and learning from the world’s highest form of motorsport—will be reflected in the show car.
So what exactly is the LF-A?
It is a two-seat concept Lexus hopes will raise the worldwide awareness of what used to be an American-only nameplate. In addition to the United States, the Lexus name is now used in Europe and is being introduced in home-market Japan. LF-A has another mission as well. Lexus says the car points at the luxury brand’s future styling direction, which the company refers to as L-Finesse. The L-Finesse theme will become evident in the production version of the GS, shown as a concept at last year’s Detroit auto show (AW, Jan. 19, 2004).
L-Finesse will be further driven home in a new IS, due in a year, and an all-new LS sedan, due in about a year and a half.
“L-Finesse is simplicity and elegance,” says Toyota executive vice president Jim Press. He says the exotic LF-A is worthy of the company’s F1 commitment, and wants you to think of it as a good indication of how Lexus might do a sports car.
Wahei Hirai, president of Toyota’s European design center, said the idea behind L-Finesse is to introduce a fundamental shift in Lexus design. The intention is to add some spark to Lexus’ admittedly staid styling, with designs that are “uncluttered and void of extraneous elements.
“Inside and out the focus is to avoid exaggeration,” Hirai says, “and to prioritize understated luxury that is intriguing, subtle and seamless.”
Actual work on the LF-A began a year ago, while the final shape you see here was finalized just two months ago. The show car itself is two inches shorter than a Porsche 911 with a nine-inch-longer wheelbase. At 48 inches high, it is about the same height as a Ferrari F430; at 73.2 inches wide, it splits the difference between the Mercedes-Benz SL55 and the Aston Martin DB9.
The minimalist approach is seen inside, too. There are few switches and ***** on the dash and center console, for example. There is no evidence of anything like those one-****-controls-it-all contraptions such as BMW’s iDrive or Audi’s MMI.
Will LF-A happen as a production car? Sources say there are “a lot of people inside the company who want it to, and a lot of people inside the company who don’t.” Officially Toyota says the car is being “carefully considered” for production; that if it is produced, the street car will look a lot like the concept.
Of this much we’re pretty sure: Our spy shooters and moles say the LF-A gives strong hints about a production sports car, which we’ve captured flying around the Nürburgring in tests (Dec. 27, 2004). Sources tell us a production version of either the next Supra (possibly called TXS) or a Lexus sports car, depending on which Toyota decides to build, might be shown at the Tokyo show this fall before going on sale a year later.
Show-car and production-car specs are closely guarded secrets. Toyota won’t give up suspension details, nor will it even say which end of the car the engine sits in, though further digging indicates it’s probably a mid-engine car.
The rumors alone are enough to get you excited, though: Power might be in the 500-hp range from a V10 engine of less than 5.0 liters of displacement. A V8 might be used if F1 rule changes, set for 2006, reflect that. The target weight is said to be less than 3000 pounds, with a top speed upward of 190 mph.
That’s all well and good. Of course, none of it means jack if Toyota doesn’t build the car, though insiders strongly hint it will. Keep your eyes on the Detroit show and the Tokyo show this fall.