VIDEO: Lexus LF-A, "The Best Car I Have Ever Driven..."

Well Zonda and McLaren is already quite different intention. LF-A seems to be in the middle of it. Spec-wise it's closer to CGT 0f 3043lb, 600hp, 8400 rpm, 5.7V10. Though MR is simply quite different. I'm interested to see how Lexus works that out to reduce polar inertia.

— dlin (View Profile)

Posted on 10/13/2009 10:52:09 AM | | Votes: 1   

Lexus doesn't make the claim that the LF-A is the best sports car in the world, only that it will be one of the best to drive daily.

— david999 (View Profile)

Posted on 10/13/2009 11:02:17 AM | | Votes: 3   

Right now the only thing Lexus can say about it is that you can't buy one. Until it reaches production level and specs are given and reviews are written it is nothing to me.

— 91z4me (View Profile)

Posted on 10/13/2009 2:27:53 PM | | Votes: -2   

The fact that this thread made through the autospies censor department shows that agent009 and EL34 haven't quite recovered from Obama winning the prestiges Nobel peace prize award.

This journalist has no cred since he mentioned the low class Porsche gt-2 should be in the same garage as the peerless LF-A. It's bad enough that the crude pagani and a 20yr old Mclaren F1 comparison is even made. The only advantage the F1 has over the LF-A is lighter weight due to not having to meet 21st century US safety standards and the central driving position. Other than that, the 20yr old BMW built V12 has nothing on a brand new Toyota engine. Toyota was already building superior engines to BMW 20yrs ago. Lets not forget the fact that the BMW V12(like some of todays BMW engine) was always having over heating issues. Gordon Murray's orginal intention was to have a super reliable Honda engine, but HOnda refused him saying the F1 program was too small of a run for them to waste engineering personal.

— Badgewhore (View Profile)

Posted on 10/13/2009 3:23:14 PM | | Votes: -2   

Kinda dispoointed that Mclaren V12 redline @ 7500 rpm, while Ferrari constatnly pushes over 8500 rpm.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redline

If LF-A really revs to 9000 rpm, does that indicate future F-line will be taking high rev NA route instead of (cheap) FA?

— dlin (View Profile)

Posted on 10/13/2009 4:06:21 PM | | Votes: 0   

whore, you should watch the documentary on the F1. Honda couldn't delivery the specs that Mclaren asked for, BMW surpasessed them and delivered a ULEV engine to boot. "BMW delivered the most compelling solution of the vendors we approached".

— NannerPus (View Profile)

Posted on 10/14/2009 3:29:44 PM | | Votes: 1   

That was after Honda turned them down. I've read just about all there is about the F1 development and Gordon Murray interviews. In some interviews, he left some stuff out from other interviews so you have to peice them all together to get everything.

Keep in mind, this is in the late 80s when BMW was small potatos and really needed the extra cash and exposure. Acura was a major hit, Honda was on top of the world in racing and building street cars and is about to make it even bigger with the 92 Civics and Integras. They're too big and too busy.

No domestic brand back then knew how to build DOHC motors, same with mercedes, AUDI was a joke and still recovering from the "unintended acceleration" suit. VW ain't even worth looking at. Mazda was also lame and couldn't build reliable rotories, Mitsubishi wasn't regarded as prestiges enough as they didn't have enough of a racing heritage. All that's left are the big boys(Toyota,Honda,Nissan). Since Honda was the only company to have solved all the problems that plague all the best high exotic manufacturors at the time, Honda was the obvious and best choice. BMW was trying to hard to sell the public this image of sport into their sedans, getting the F1 engine deal would make a great impact in furthering their goal.

Gordon Murray originally wanted a small displacement lightweight V8 at about 4.5L(similar to todays F430) but when BMW presented a 6L V12 that would fit in his engine bay, who's going to argue? The V12 most likely added more weight but the extra torque and power more than made up for it. Unfortunately when such a huge engine is crammed into such a little car, there wasn't much room to dissipate heat(even when $4000 worth of genuine gold foils were used to line the engine bay hood). But most likely it's due to BMWs under developed design. If BMW can't even get their mass production engines to be very reliable, it's hard to expect a small custom one-off batch to do any better. But between all the little engine companies like Lotus and others, BMW was probably the best choice as they are better equipped to build more engine if needed and they are also the most Honda like in that they prefer NA motors over Force induction.

— Badgewhore (View Profile)

Posted on 10/15/2009 8:26:46 AM | | Votes: 0   

So much BS little whore....BMW engines are incredibly reliable...and they had won a Formula One Championship before they built the engine that Mclaren chose for the F1.

I can't even read your nonsense anymore, whore. "Small potatoes", "under developed"... you are the badge-whoriest whore ever. It is brain damage reading your bullshit.

FYI, banks in the midwest wouldn't even finance a honda in the seventies because the collateral would rust away so fast.

— NannerPus (View Profile)

Posted on 10/15/2009 11:15:38 PM | | Votes: 2   

who would be credible? some blind lexus hater? drop your 12-year old stuck up bias and look around

— DinamoR (View Profile)

Posted on 10/13/2009 2:20:54 PM | | Votes: 6   

Those cars are too unrefine and under engineered to be on the same level as the LF-A. So yeah, something fishy about this.

— Badgewhore (View Profile)

Posted on 10/13/2009 3:33:30 PM | | Votes: 2   

When I say reliable, I mean someone that actual says a thing or too about why the car was better. What exactly did it have or do that made it the best car ever. Just saying it's the best car ever with the best engine ever on par of other iconic supercars isn't a reliable statement to me. I'm not sure if you people buy everything you read or hear, but I tend to want more detail before I jump on something.

And as for me having a bias, clearly you guys are the ones with the bias coming here to defend something based on a random comment with no explanation. I for one would love to see lexus or anyone else make an amazing supercar because it's one more thing for me to be interested in, but I'm not going to buy something that looks more like PR propaganda than anything else.

And should someone more credible, or maybe even the same person, give a more detailed explanation as to why it is the best car ever, I'll be the first person excited and the first person to applaud Lexus for what they have done. As it stands, nothing like that has happened. Just a video of a (for all I know) random guy calling the car the best car ever made.

— audispy (View Profile)

Posted on 10/13/2009 5:29:50 PM | | Votes: -1   

he's driven pretty much all of those cars and he gave his opinion. clearly this was not his thesis for a Phd in journalism so he just stated his opinion.

— DinamoR (View Profile)

Posted on 10/13/2009 10:37:39 PM | | Votes: -1   

Anthony is on to something....

— Agent00R (View Profile)

Posted on 10/13/2009 11:45:31 AM | | Votes: 11   

OH realy?

— 1UAW (View Profile)

Posted on 10/13/2009 12:10:37 PM | | Votes: -15   

Some peoples' insecurity is starting to creep in. Remember this same kind of talk from the haters when the GT-R was being introduced?....bla bla bla...will never compete with Porsche...bla bla bla.

— _43LE (View Profile)

Posted on 10/13/2009 1:28:59 PM | | Votes: 10   

the IS-F ended up being amazing. That is why I own one as my daily driver. Yes I did test drive the M3, C63, and RS4. They all offer something different, the mercedes has raw power an incredibly hard and controlled chassis/suspension, and the M3 is amazing, overpriced, but amazing. In unforgiving weather you cannot beat the RS4,. However the best mix of these beasts is offered by the IS-F. For those of you who feel the need to thrash this comment. Please only do so if you HAVE DRIVEN ALL THREE CARS, otherwise you are just perpetuating a debate based on nothing of substance.

— Jmiller44 (View Profile)

Posted on 10/13/2009 12:32:28 PM | | Votes: 6   

Wow, someone is sensitive about their purchase.

— HSCenterconsole (View Profile)

Posted on 10/13/2009 12:57:58 PM | | Votes: -8   

...well, because there has yet to be a review on the IS-F where it was trashed, plain and simple. Actually the overwhelming majority praise the company for hitting so close to the mark on its first try.

Now, if you reading this with German glasses it would say:

blahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahLEXUSSUXblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahLEXUSSUXblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblah........................

— StarSearch (View Profile)

Posted on 10/13/2009 1:41:16 PM | | Votes: 7   

I've driven the M3, C63 AMG, RS4, and IS-F, so I guess that means I'm allowed to comment. The order I listed them in -- that's the order in which I would rank them (were the RS4 based on the new A4 I'd put it ahead of the C63 and maybe even the M3). As for the IS-F personally I was not a fan. I didn't like the boy racer bodykit that literally looked like something off the set of Fast and Furious, the ride was ridiculously stiff, the rear seats were unusable, the transmission was constantly hunting for gears, and it was slower than everything else. The only thing it really offered was value versus the competition, but frankly if it came down to it I'd rather have a 335i or new S4 than an IS-F.

— JRobUSC (View Profile)

Posted on 10/13/2009 4:43:43 PM | | Votes: -6   

StarSearch, perhaps you need to read those reviews and comparison tests again. Yes, they usually said "solid first effort". But they've also pretty universally said "last place".

— JRobUSC (View Profile)

Posted on 10/13/2009 4:46:17 PM | | Votes: -5   

no, actually the reviews complimented on how well the IS-F could be driven daily and how smooth the 7-speed tranny actually was. Your criticisms of a small sports car came down to its looks and small backseat which is questionable at best considering one is an opinion and the other isn't even a top priority for buyers in this class.

Again, the point is that all those cars you mentioned had well over a decade (if not much longer) to establish themselves and fine tune their vehicles against the competition, unlike the IS-F. You're acting like the car is WAY out of its element, when it kept pace with all of them literally within .1 to .2 seconds.

Did I mention that it costs almost the same as the M3 yet sold only 65 less cars than it last year...in a horrible market.

— StarSearch (View Profile)

Posted on 10/14/2009 9:20:13 AM | | Votes: 1   

Good point. Another example is the Corvette Z06...

— Agent00R (View Profile)

Posted on 10/13/2009 12:29:32 PM | | Votes: 3   

Right now, the guess is 500 worldwide. Every Lexus dealership in North America will get 1.

— david999 (View Profile)

Posted on 10/13/2009 2:32:18 PM | | Votes: -2   

There will be 500 for the world, 350 right hand drive, 150 left hand drive. If the demand is there, Lexus will build more.

— mitchatlexusofmarin (View Profile)

Posted on 10/13/2009 2:40:46 PM | | Votes: 1   

By the way, California alone has more than 500 paid deposits.

— mitchatlexusofmarin (View Profile)

Posted on 10/13/2009 2:44:08 PM | | Votes: 0   

Question, isn't part of the value in owning one of these knowing how rare it is? If the demand is there and Lexus decides to build to fill all the orders, all of a sudden that whole rare concept is gone. You won't see Bugatti building any more then their set quota for this reason alone.

— Joe_Limon (View Profile)

Posted on 10/13/2009 2:52:54 PM | | Votes: -4   

Yes Joe, but they will not fill all of the orders. There are over 200 dealers in the US, and only 150 available presently to those dealers. They can build many more without saturation.

— mitchatlexusofmarin (View Profile)

Posted on 10/13/2009 3:02:44 PM | | Votes: 0   

But these people already put their money down on what they thought would be a limited production item. What if Lexus went and super saturated the market with 10x as many cars? They could probably sell them so in Lexus's eyes that would be a good thing. But in the eyes of someone who already put their money down, they just got scammed.

— Joe_Limon (View Profile)

Posted on 10/13/2009 3:12:35 PM | | Votes: -3   

In my experience, the people who have reserved the car have done so because they want the car. Their motivation was not (at least as expressed to me) to be reserving the car because of scarcity or collectability. I don't have a sense that people will feel scammed.

— mitchatlexusofmarin (View Profile)

Posted on 10/13/2009 3:27:48 PM | | Votes: 1   

Holy #%#) Joe. Just go ahead and change your name to Devil's advocate.

If the don't sell any....they suck. If they sell too many....they suck.

No one is asking you to buy one.

— 800over (View Profile)

Posted on 10/14/2009 4:35:56 PM | | Votes: 1   

A company that keeps it's clients as number 1 would sell exactly as many as it needs. If the demand is so great for this supercar then it is a godd thing. There is no need to dilute and go back on your word.

— Joe_Limon (View Profile)

Posted on 10/15/2009 11:53:43 PM | | Votes: 1   

good*

— Joe_Limon (View Profile)

Posted on 10/15/2009 11:54:44 PM | | Votes: 1   

Haters will wait until the car actually reaches production. If it does given its gestation.

— 91z4me (View Profile)

Posted on 10/13/2009 2:33:35 PM | | Votes: 1   

DinamoR, the LF-A stands for everything you seem to be against. Aren't you a green nut who believes the world should be driving hybrids and not muscle cars?

— Joe_Limon (View Profile)

Posted on 10/13/2009 2:53:51 PM | | Votes: 0   

joe you really should put up a pic of yourself that doesnt make you look like a hobo, maybe people would listen to you

— GeorgeWJoke (View Profile)

Posted on 10/13/2009 6:40:18 PM | | Votes: 4   

wow, that got a lot of boosts, ok I'll change it.

— Joe_Limon (View Profile)

Posted on 10/14/2009 10:14:28 AM | | Votes: 2   

October 21st.

— mitchatlexusofmarin (View Profile)

Posted on 10/13/2009 6:01:31 PM | | Votes: 0   

the f1 was a 94 model if im not mistaken so why is this an issue?? wow the new lexus is "better" than a 15 (probably 17 by the time you can actually buy an lf-a) year old mclaren... if anything that's a diss to lexus seeing as mclaren is coming out with a new model... probably before the "new" lf-a comes out too... than compare those two models... bet you lexus wont win

— GeorgeWJoke (View Profile)

Posted on 10/13/2009 6:44:36 PM | | Votes: 2   

How am I dissing Lexus?

I'm merely stating the obvious. Besides, every new Lexus model is usually surrounded by a bunch of Toyota-supported hype.

— Willis (View Profile)

Posted on 10/13/2009 7:05:19 PM | | Votes: -3