The legendary Lexus LFA needs no introduction.
It’s one of the most impressive cars the Japanese automaker ever built, not to mention it’s one of the best-sounding cars the world has ever seen.
Fortunately for us, there are currently two examples of the LFA on home soil.
There used to be three – a silver, red, and white one – but the silver one departed to Europe sometime in the last few years whilst the red one is in the hands of a private owner in Joburg.
This leaves the white one, which is the property of Toyota South Africa Motors (TSAM) and is currently on display at the new Halfway Lexus dealership in Lynnwood Road, Pretoria, where we spent some time this week getting to know more about it.
The car in question – chassis number 372 out of 500 – is rather special in the LFA world.
Its odometer stands on just 122km, which the friendly Lexus salesman explained were mostly racked up back home in Japan on a test track before the sports car was delivered to South Africa in the early 2010s. The rest were accumulated exclusively through rolling onto and back off delivery trucks.
The low reading makes the particular model one of, if not the lowest-mileage LFA in the world.
As a result, TSAM has gotten some “ridiculous” offers for it in the past.
The salesman said that the market value for a similar model today is somewhere between R20 million and R30 million, staggering numbers when considering it sold for R5 million in 2011.
When asked if TSAM has received similar proposals from interested individuals, he said it has been offered more.
However, this LFA is one of the crown jewels in the subsidiary’s collection – which also includes legends like a fully restored Toyota 2000GT – so it’s not going anywhere, he said.
In fact, TSAM values the two-door so highly that the dealership where it’s on display doesn’t even have the keys to it, so they can’t start it or open the doors for anyone.
It’s perhaps a good thing, though. Photos of the car being delivered to Halfway Lexus immediately garnered frantic attention, with the salesman revealing that people even drove through the night from Durban to see it in the metal.
If the dealer would’ve opened the doors and ignited the glorious V10 for anyone and everyone who walked in, a lot of preventable and unneccessary wear and tear would’ve been incurred.
That said, for anyone with a desire to go see one of the two remaining LFAs in South Africa, you better act quick.
The salesman said they have no idea when it’s going to leave again and go back into the TSAM vault. It could be tomorrow, next week, next month, or next year, and who knows when we’re going to see it again after that.
I’d recommend doing so if you are willing and able; it’s a sight to behold and the folks over at Halfway Lexus are as courteous as could be.
An engineering marvel
The Lexus LFA is a marvel of engineering in every sense of the word.
Initially conceived in the early 2000s, the sports car took a decade to develop and went through several design iterations before Lexus settled on the final version.
Production took place from 2010 to 2012 with every single unit being hand built. When all was said and done, Lexus assembled just 500 examples of the LFA comprising 450 standard models like the two in South Africa, and 50 high-octane Nurburgring Edition derivatives.
Two convertible models were also produced in secrecy but with demand for the coupe not meeting expectations at the time, a topless LFA never made it into production.
The LFA allowed Lexus, and by extension, Toyota, to really go all out and push their limits.
Perhaps what it’s best known for, the coupe boasts a 4.8-litre, naturally aspirated, V10 engine that was co-developed with Yamaha producing a healthy 412kW and 480Nm, enough to propel it to 100km/h in 3.7 seconds on its way to a maximum of 326km/h.
Speed is one thing, but the sound it makes, that’s on another level.
The LFA with its 9,000rpm redline was crafted to sound as close to a Formula 1 challenger as a production car could get, so there really is nothing else quite like it on the roads.
It was also the fastest-revving engine in its time, revving from idle to redline in just 0.6 seconds. So fast, in fact, that a traditional analogue tachometer couldn’t keep up, so Lexus had to develop a bespoke digital display instead.
The design of the sports car was modelled after the concept of a samurai sword cutting through the air, and as such, it’s elegant, aggressive, and I can attest, timeless.
The company initially wanted to construct the entire thing out of aluminium but for greater strength and less weight, it decided to make the switch to carbon fibre-reinforced polymer (CFRP).
Around 65% of the LFA was made from the lightweight material including its monocoque chassis, shaving about 100kg when compared to just using aluminium, with the end result being a kerb weight of just 1,480kg.
As a point of reference, the Lexus UX, the automaker’s smallest and lightest vehicle on the market today, tips the scales at 1,585kg.
Among the more interesting facts about the car is that it doesn’t have a front radiator like most modern vehicles; instead, they’re located at the rear straddling the exhaust system and are fed with cool air via several ducts that are cleverly hidden in the bodywork.
To further optimise weight distribution and handling, the 73-litre fuel tank was positioned ahead of the rear axle.
At the rear, one can see a fetching active rear wing that automatically deploys at 80km/h to improve downforce and stability at high speeds.
Lexus also fit 20-inch BBS forged-alloy wheels shod with Bridgestone Potenza tyres all round, measuring a beefy 9.5 inches wide at the front and 11.5 inches at the rear.
The interior of the LFA is a mix of track-ready elements combined with plush fittings typical of Lexus.
Owners were treated to no shortage of leather, Alcantara, exposed carbon fibre, and bare aluminium and magnesium alloys on the various components.
The three-spoke steering wheel is doused in leather and carbon fibre, and a 7-inch display rising up in the middle offers climate and infotainment functions.
A numbered plaque is also mounted on the rear bulkhead denoting the chassis number of the specific model.
Lexus LFA at Halfway Lexus Pretoria
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