Lexus has never built a supercar before, so it would almost be okay if people were to doubt the LF-A’s talents at first. Well because a car should never be judged before it’s driven, the LF-A was given the benefit of doubt, but that was before any journalist drove one. Then the testing began, one prominent journalist called it the “best car he had EVER driven”, and others were singing equally high praise. So what gives?
Well, Lexus did take nine (yes, 9) years to build it. The first body was built in aluminium but because the bosses at Lexus were not happy with it, the entire thing was scrapped and the engineers worked from scratch all over again. This time they worked with carbon fiber with as much attention to detail given to the car as a stealth bomber except this is no stealth bomber. The V10 engine at the rear is so rev-happy that Lexus had to design and build a digital rev meter just because a regular rev meter could not keep up with how fast the engine built and lost revs.
The engineers of the LF-A were so obsessed with weight saving and carbon fiber that even the steering wheel is made out of carbon fiber. So is the Lexus LF-A any more special then? Well, it’s got the Gallardo’s cylinders and the 599’s power, it’s got the speed of the Aston Martin DBS but the price of a uber exotic hypercar. So how good can a Lexus supercar be? Richard Hammond finds out in the video above and below.