The most eagerly awaited sports car in decades, the Lexus LFA, made its debut as a production model at the 2009 Tokyo Motor Show.
Designed from the ground up by a small team of engineers and more than a decade in the making, the Lexus LFA packs a huge wallop. Powered by a 4.8-liter V10 engine that develops 552 horsepower paired with a six-speed automated sequential gearbox, the LFA goes from zero to 100 km/h in an eye-popping 3.7 seconds (zero to 60 mph in 3) and achieves a top speed of 202 mph.
No detail was spared in Toyota's quest to make its flagship luxury sportscar the best of its breed. The Lexus LFA's body is made of carbon-fiber reinforced plastic, using the same advanced resin technology found in advanced aerospace applications, for ultra light weight - 100 kg (220 pounds) lighter than a comparable aluminum body. Toyota engineers, working in close collaboration with counterparts at Yamaha, developed a V10 engine that weighs less than a V6 and surrounded it with peripheral systems arranged to give the car a very low center of gravity and excellent weight distribution.
The car is the top of the Lexus F line of sports-cars and carries a price tag to match: an LFA will sell for $375,000. Only 500 of the cars will be built in its first two years of production, which will begin in December 2010. Pre-sales expressions of interest may be placed starting today, with actual orders taken starting in the second quarter of 2010.
The Lexus LFA also marks a departure for Toyota Motor Company. The world's largest automaker has built its reputation in recent years mainly on producing fuel-efficient, environmentally friendly cars. But new Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda, unveiling the car at the Tokyo Motor Show, stressed that the company also needed to produce cars people can get excited about as more of the world gets behind the wheel of a car. As he told Reuters, "It's our mission as automakers to offer cars that possess the 'fun' spirit that should be at the base of any car."
The Lexus LFA has that in abundance.
Written by Sandy Smith
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