Take that naysayers. Go Akio!

 

Yes, that name should be kept for the concept only. Sort of like LF-Sh => LS 600h. However rumors are they are calling it "LF-1"? That doesn't fit Lexus' naming conventions...I liked GT 500...or "GT-F"!

 

A while back, Motor Trend reported that rumor, but added that Bernie Ecclestone, Formula 1 racing's head honcho, complained because of the F-1 part of the LF-1 name.

 

LF-A is the concept name. No guarantee the production car will have the same name. Most likely the production car will have a different name.

So there we have it people; critics eat your heart out :

The executive vice-president of Toyota Akio Toyoda, who is also part of the Toyoda family itself did some demonstration laps in the LF-A.

So let's see what we have so far:

LF-A being a huge auto show hit? Check.
LF-A been seen testing on several race tracks around the world? Check.
LF-A participating in a 24 hour race at the Nurburgring, and finishing the race 1st in class? Check.
LF-A being demonstrated at Toyota's Motorsports Festival alongside Toyota's F1 cars? Check.

This is as obvious of a confirmation for the production car as you're going to get from Toyota, apart from them actually showing us the production car.

Add to this is the fact that several CL members have heard information from their sources or Lexus dealerships that the LF-A is confirmed for production.

All Toyota is doing at this point is just teasing and building hype. Notice the "Gran Turismo" stickers on the car. Don't be surprised to see the LF-A, whether in mule or production form, be available in the upcoming Gran Turismo 5 game to drive.

By showing off the LF-A development car alongside their F1 cars, Toyota is also telling us how closely LF-A development has been connected to their F1 program.

Also on a related note, Akio Toyoda has been very vocal within Toyota executive ranks about Toyota needing more sports cars in it's lineup. He is the #1 choice inside Toyota right now to become the next CEO. You can be certain Toyota WILL have several sports cars in it's lineup in the next few years, and a lot of that will be thanks to Akio Toyoda. Akio for Toyota could become what Shigeru Uehara was for Honda, an influential voice within the company that pushes sports cars into the lineup.

 

I'd like to see if Honda's vice president will be doing any demonstration laps in an NSX development car .

 

I dont think anyone hinted that the LF-A doesn't exist. It just took so damn long for Toyota to take another step towards production. Great timing with the economy

 

Nobody hinted it "doesn't exist", but come on now A LOT of people including here on CL have argued the car is/will be be cancelled, not going into production, delayed indefinitely etc.

Frankly, all this talk about "great timing with the economy" is jumping to conclusions. At the very earliest, the LF-A likely won't be on the market until 2010.

Nobody, including CL members, or even economists know what the market and economy will be like come 2010.

It's also ironic nobody here is talking about the competition in this "current economy". How about the upcoming Benz supercar, or any other number of supercars coming out in the next few years? Aren't they going to be affected by the same economy as the LF-A?

From first concept to production, the GT-R took 4-5 years. The LF-A will take a bit longer than that. I don't understand all the complaints. Plus you have to remember the LF-A is not the same class of car as the GT-R; it's on another level so naturally development time will take longer. Plus, I'm sure Toyota is aiming for higher levels of luxury and reliability than the GT-R.

 

How long was the new GTR introduce since its inception as a concept? 5 years i believe?

 

Boy I sure got people's attention today.

There is nothing wrong with speculating that the LF-A will get canceled. It doesn't necessarily mean we dont want to see it at all, but we can't rule out the possibility that it may not come into production due to the economy. Not sure why this is even debated. Great for Toyota if they're pushing the LF-A into production. I would like to see more GT-type cars than from the usual suspect (aston, mercedes, masarati, etc). Mercedes may or may not release a supercar, I dont know because I haven't looked into that, but one thing for sure, Toyota do play things very safely which is why I wouldn't be surprised if they decided to scrape the LF-A project.

Quite frankly, I'm not much of a Nissan/GT-R fan so I dont care what they do. The GTR was unvealed in 01 as a concept car, but it wasn't until 2005 (same year LF-A was debut) when Nissan showed us a car that would look like GT-R of today. Two years later, it hit the streets. The LF-A of today looks like the LF-A of 05. We're just anxious to see this car roll down the streets.

 

This car will have taken so long, we will have experienced and economic boom, recession, then back to boom lol.

What is not good is the LF-A taking so long means it has to beat updated "RIng" times. Sub 7:30 is no longer as rare as it once was.

 

Nah, Lexus doesnt need to beat any ring time. They just need good marketing for the general public to eat up as usual and they will be good. Just like that, you have a world class car.

 

We don't know the full capability of the LF-A on the 'Ring, now do we? The only thing we have is the unofficial time a mule recorded of 7:24, which is still blazing fast even compared to the top cars today. That's still a faster time than a ZR-1, a Carrera GT, a Benz SLR, a Pagani Zonda F and a GT-R. It's also quite likely that a GT-R Spec-V won't be faster than that either.

If Toyota manages to get a faster time than 7:24 in a production LF-A, then really they don't have much to worry about.

 

In the 2009 Lexus U.S. full-line The Pursuit of Perfection Auto Show brochure (arguably the nicest full-line one they've ever made), the LF-A makes an appearance on Page 9. Even there, though, Lexus sends mixed messages.

The end of the first paragraph reads, "Now in phase two of development, the LF-A is one step closer to becoming the second Lexus to feature the F marque on its front fenders, denoting its place in Lexus' high-performance division.

On the other hand, the last paragraph reads, "Exhilirating for our engineers, yes. And, should it be made available, promising to be even more so for our drivers."

 

So it took about 7 years to debut from initial concept, but people are blasting lexus after a 2 year intro?

i won't even mention the plethora of quasi-nsx's honda has unveiled during this time.

 

2 year intro? It's been almost 4 years since the first concept and probably wont be another 2-3 years before the LF-A rolls out into production. I'm not defending Honda because they are the worse of the bunch. I'm putting Nissan in this too because there is a 6 year model gap between the R34 and R35