Official LF-A(II) thread (Will debut at Tokyo Auto Show, Lexus details Oct 20th, 8pm)
05-22-09, 11:16 PM
#1981
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These two race-spec LF-As only give you a sense of the general shape of the production car. Go back a few pages in this thread and look at the pics of the production LF-A covered in camo. There you can see some details and bodywork differences in terms of what the production car will look like.
By the way, the production LF-A will look much closer to the LF-A II than the LF-A I.
05-22-09, 11:30 PM
#1982
Lexus Fanatic
beautiful car, but the style is still on the more mild side. For the price range and considering its competiton it looks boring. I am sure it blisteringly fast, but just doesn't look it. ( neither does the GTR though)
05-23-09, 04:04 AM
#1983
Lexus Champion
Took the Ls600 in for a service today and the dealer told me I was 4th in line for the LFA. With only 150 cars available for Japan I am thinking of puting my name down at other dealers.
And if I do end up being able to secure one of these cars I definately will go white on the interior if they offer it.
And if I do end up being able to secure one of these cars I definately will go white on the interior if they offer it.
05-23-09, 09:56 AM
#1985
Lexus Europe has a live twitter feed of text updates:
http://twitter.com/Lexus_Europe
Also the Gazoo Racing site seems to have some followup but not sure where to view a live stream.
http://twitter.com/Lexus_Europe
Also the Gazoo Racing site seems to have some followup but not sure where to view a live stream.
05-23-09, 10:09 AM
#1986
Pole Position
05-24-09, 06:32 PM
#1989
Pole Position
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LFA was fast but unreliable. Both LFA's spent 5-6 hours of the 24 hour race in the garage getting fixed. And then one of them blew an engine in the last couple hours.
When it was running, it was gaining on the Aston V12 Vantage very quickly. 20-30 seconds every lap. After the first breakdown (when it was around 15th overall) it came out in the race around the 80-85th place, moved up to 26th place, right behind the Aston Martin. Then something happened again and the LFA spent 3,5 hours in the garage and dropped down to 102nd place. It came back out with 5 hours left and made up some ground finishing in around 85th.
Aston Martin V12 Vantage ended up winning the class. LFA was behind the Aston, IS-F, RS4 and a couple BMW 135's due to un-reliability.
IS-F was in the garage for about an hour in the first 2 hours of the race (not sure why) so it fell from its 113th starting position to about 157th. After it came out 2 hours into the race, it had no major problems rest of the way and was moving up steadily, all the way from 157th to 83rd I think where it finished.
IS-F was much more reliable than the LFA, which should be expected IMO since the LFA is a prototype.
And I agree with bimmer8hater. seems to me they have really watered down the design from the LFAII concept. Those headlights look very ordinary compared to the headlights of the LFAII concept. For a halo car with a Ferrari price they should have kept the beautiful shapes of the concept as much as possible.
When it was running, it was gaining on the Aston V12 Vantage very quickly. 20-30 seconds every lap. After the first breakdown (when it was around 15th overall) it came out in the race around the 80-85th place, moved up to 26th place, right behind the Aston Martin. Then something happened again and the LFA spent 3,5 hours in the garage and dropped down to 102nd place. It came back out with 5 hours left and made up some ground finishing in around 85th.
Aston Martin V12 Vantage ended up winning the class. LFA was behind the Aston, IS-F, RS4 and a couple BMW 135's due to un-reliability.
IS-F was in the garage for about an hour in the first 2 hours of the race (not sure why) so it fell from its 113th starting position to about 157th. After it came out 2 hours into the race, it had no major problems rest of the way and was moving up steadily, all the way from 157th to 83rd I think where it finished.
IS-F was much more reliable than the LFA, which should be expected IMO since the LFA is a prototype.
And I agree with bimmer8hater. seems to me they have really watered down the design from the LFAII concept. Those headlights look very ordinary compared to the headlights of the LFAII concept. For a halo car with a Ferrari price they should have kept the beautiful shapes of the concept as much as possible.
05-24-09, 07:34 PM
#1991
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LFA was fast but unreliable. Both LFA's spent 5-6 hours of the 24 hour race in the garage getting fixed. And then one of them blew an engine in the last couple hours.
When it was running, it was gaining on the Aston V12 Vantage very quickly. 20-30 seconds every lap. After the first breakdown (when it was around 15th overall) it came out in the race around the 80-85th place, moved up to 26th place, right behind the Aston Martin. Then something happened again and the LFA spent 3,5 hours in the garage and dropped down to 102nd place. It came back out with 5 hours left and made up some ground finishing in around 85th.
Aston Martin V12 Vantage ended up winning the class. LFA was behind the Aston, IS-F, RS4 and a couple BMW 135's due to un-reliability.
IS-F was in the garage for about an hour in the first 2 hours of the race (not sure why) so it fell from its 113th starting position to about 157th. After it came out 2 hours into the race, it had no major problems rest of the way and was moving up steadily, all the way from 157th to 83rd I think where it finished.
IS-F was much more reliable than the LFA, which should be expected IMO since the LFA is a prototype.
When it was running, it was gaining on the Aston V12 Vantage very quickly. 20-30 seconds every lap. After the first breakdown (when it was around 15th overall) it came out in the race around the 80-85th place, moved up to 26th place, right behind the Aston Martin. Then something happened again and the LFA spent 3,5 hours in the garage and dropped down to 102nd place. It came back out with 5 hours left and made up some ground finishing in around 85th.
Aston Martin V12 Vantage ended up winning the class. LFA was behind the Aston, IS-F, RS4 and a couple BMW 135's due to un-reliability.
IS-F was in the garage for about an hour in the first 2 hours of the race (not sure why) so it fell from its 113th starting position to about 157th. After it came out 2 hours into the race, it had no major problems rest of the way and was moving up steadily, all the way from 157th to 83rd I think where it finished.
IS-F was much more reliable than the LFA, which should be expected IMO since the LFA is a prototype.
Really? Didn't know that it blew an engine. I know one of them crashed at some point. since it ran the race last year and didn't have any engine problems, you would think a year later, then engine would be rock solid reliable... would that mean they bumped up the power?
Didn't realize that they got as high as 15th
Kudos to Bez in the Aston, Kudos as well to the IS-F.
05-24-09, 08:55 PM
#1992
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The blown engine has not been confirmed yet. Neither Lexus nor Gazoo Racing ever mentioned a blown engine. What happened is the one of the LF-As at the end of the race had some steam coming out of the rear radiators. My guess is the car may have overheated. The was the #15 LF-A, that had steam coming from the rear radiators at the end of the race. This was also the LF-A prototype that was involved in a crash at the beginning of the race. That crash took out the #15 LF-A for 5 hours while it was being worked on in the garage. A Porsche caused the #15 crash at the beginning of the race. The damage was somewhat serious as the LF-A's driveshaft got bent. For all we know, the reliability problem at the end of the race for the #15 could have been because of, or due to the crash the car has suffered at the beginning of the race.
The other LF-A, the #14 car ran reliably for most of the race, but with a few hours left it had to go to the garage because of an alternator issue. It spent about 3 hours in the garage getting fixed.
Even though both LF-As were out of the race for several hours each, they both still managed to finish in the Top 100, quite an achievement if you ask me.
The best laps from both LF-A machines were very close to the leaders, which is an achievement considering the Top 10 cars were in a different class than the LF-A, and were highly modified from factory stock. The LF-A ran close to production factory specs. Both LF-As out on track were much faster than the V12 Vantage, and were by far the fastest cars in their class. The LF-As were able to get lap times similar to the Porsche GT3 RSRs running in the Top 5, as well as the modified Audi R8s. Pretty good company if you ask me, being able to get lap times similar to highly modified GT3s and R8s while running close to production trim with the LF-As.
Regardless, the Gazoo Racing team did much better this year than last year. Both LF-As finished better than the LF-A last year. Both LF-As were also faster than last year's prototype. The IS-F the team ran also did very well. Most important, the team got twice as much data and information running two LF-A prototypes compared to the one they ran last year. Both Lexus and Gazoo racing said they learnt a lot in the race and have plenty of information for further development of the LF-A.
It's getting really tiring hearing Lexus "watered down" the design compared to the LF-A II. What design are you looking at? The race prototype with FAKE body panels? Or the production prototype seen at the 'Ring recently that still has tons of camouflage?
Lexus has not shown the production car yet, we DON'T KNOW what it looks like yet, so criticizing the LF-A design when we haven't even seen it yet is silly.
Here is a clip of the Gazoo Racing endurance race preparation posted earlier, but this time with subtitles so you can understand what they are saying
:
http://www.lexus.eu/about/news-and-e...C3%BCrburgring
Also here is a gallery of the LF-A prototypes on the Lexus Europe website, some really nice pics:
http://www.lexus.eu/about/news-and-e...g/gallery.aspx
Also "Morizo" is a pseudonym for Akio Toyoda. He participated in the 4-hour endurance race.
Akio also during this 24 hour race drove not only one of the LF-A prototypes, he drove the IS-F for a few hours as well.
Tons of pics I will post later from the 24 hour race, but here is one for now from one of the prototypes I think everyone will enjoy
:
The other LF-A, the #14 car ran reliably for most of the race, but with a few hours left it had to go to the garage because of an alternator issue. It spent about 3 hours in the garage getting fixed.
Even though both LF-As were out of the race for several hours each, they both still managed to finish in the Top 100, quite an achievement if you ask me.
The best laps from both LF-A machines were very close to the leaders, which is an achievement considering the Top 10 cars were in a different class than the LF-A, and were highly modified from factory stock. The LF-A ran close to production factory specs. Both LF-As out on track were much faster than the V12 Vantage, and were by far the fastest cars in their class. The LF-As were able to get lap times similar to the Porsche GT3 RSRs running in the Top 5, as well as the modified Audi R8s. Pretty good company if you ask me, being able to get lap times similar to highly modified GT3s and R8s while running close to production trim with the LF-As.
Regardless, the Gazoo Racing team did much better this year than last year. Both LF-As finished better than the LF-A last year. Both LF-As were also faster than last year's prototype. The IS-F the team ran also did very well. Most important, the team got twice as much data and information running two LF-A prototypes compared to the one they ran last year. Both Lexus and Gazoo racing said they learnt a lot in the race and have plenty of information for further development of the LF-A.
It's getting really tiring hearing Lexus "watered down" the design compared to the LF-A II. What design are you looking at? The race prototype with FAKE body panels? Or the production prototype seen at the 'Ring recently that still has tons of camouflage?
Lexus has not shown the production car yet, we DON'T KNOW what it looks like yet, so criticizing the LF-A design when we haven't even seen it yet is silly.
Here is a clip of the Gazoo Racing endurance race preparation posted earlier, but this time with subtitles so you can understand what they are saying
:http://www.lexus.eu/about/news-and-e...C3%BCrburgring
Also here is a gallery of the LF-A prototypes on the Lexus Europe website, some really nice pics:
http://www.lexus.eu/about/news-and-e...g/gallery.aspx
Also "Morizo" is a pseudonym for Akio Toyoda. He participated in the 4-hour endurance race.
Akio also during this 24 hour race drove not only one of the LF-A prototypes, he drove the IS-F for a few hours as well.
Tons of pics I will post later from the 24 hour race, but here is one for now from one of the prototypes I think everyone will enjoy
:
05-24-09, 11:59 PM
#1993
What are the chances of LF-A racing in next month (June 13 & 14) 24 Heures Du Mans?
http://www.lemans.org/accueil/index_gb.html
http://www.lemans.org/accueil/index_gb.html
05-25-09, 09:51 AM
#1994
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Great summary, thanks for writing this up. I followed some of the race on the Gazoo site and could see the rankings, down time and .comments. It's good to get this summary though.
