LickSauce

Thanks to Enzox/Soup!

http://www.germancarforum.com/lexus/...ersion-33.html

05RollaXRS

Thanks LickSauce. Here it is for convenience:

Laguna Seca lap records - FastestLaps.com

Lexus LFA: 2011 Motor Trend Best Driver's Car Contender



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKuoOtUsJxA

Lexus LFA - 2011 Motor Trend Best Driver's Car Contender - Motor Trend

ABOUT BEST DRIVER'S CAR

What makes a great driver's car? Is it brute performance? Or gut-wrenching grip? What about balance and finesse, and the quality of the interaction between man and machine? We argue that a great driver's car has a chassis and powertrain and brakes and steering that enable the enthusiast driver to confidently explore the limits of its performance envelope, as well as his own. On top of all that, the best one also contains an X factor, a little something extra that elevates the breed.

Best Driver's Car is not a race. Numbers aren't everything. To get the fullest picture possible for each competing vehicle, we perform our normal battery of performance testing and real-world driving as well as racetrack performance. Yet, while on-track performance is just one piece of a larger puzzle, it's without question the most fun. Join us each day as we introduce the contenders, with track results and impressions by master driver Randy Pobst, all leading up to the crowning of the 2011 Motor Trend Best Driver's Car.

2012 LEXUS LFA

The culmination of a decade of development, the Lexus LFA is the brand's performance halo car, designed to elevate its status to the ranks of the world's elite. The hand-built, F1-inspired V-10 engine revs to its 9000-rpm limit so fast that only a digital tachometer could keep up. The LFA features a carbon-fiber-reinforced plastic tub and bodywork to minimize weight, parts of which are woven together using proprietary methods developed from Toyota's textile operations. Features include one throttle body per cylinder, a rear-mounted single-clutch automated manual transmission, and a rear wing that deploys automatically at speed.



RANDY'S IMPRESSIONS

On handling... "Well, that's quite a machine. That's really obvious. It's on a pretty fine edge the whole time you're driving. I have a good sense of control, but it also keeps me from throwing care to the wind and just flying, you know. When I think a car is really handling the way I want it to, when I go the fastest on a racetrack, I don't have to think about driving it. I go down to the corner, crank the wheel, carry the speed in there, and it just lays in there and does its thing. The Lexus is almost there. A little bit more finicky, though. A little bit more finicky."

On the transmission... "Transmission, in full manual mode, is not shifting very fast. In fact, it feels like forever compared to some of the better transmissions. I'm really amazed. It just seems like it's a long time you're not accelerating."

On the brakes... "Braking was real strong, but holy crap, get your braking done before you get light 'cause the pedal gets hard and the car just doesn't wanna stop. On top of the Corkscrew, 'cause you go up that Corkscrew and the braking felt really good on the first couple of brake zones and I was pretty aggressive with it. I braked a little bit up on the uphill and hard pedaled at crest and the car just did not want to stop. Missed the apex pretty bad on my outlap, so I was braking earlier on purpose the next couple laps, maybe a bit too conservative there, but I don't think so."

On the steering... "Steering is fabulous. The car does have a really nice feel of being balanced, but it snaps loose easier than I prefer. I felt a little bit of mid-corner push sometimes, not bad. I actually like the car better at higher speeds than at lower speeds. The turn 4 sweeper, I just felt more confident about the car there than I did here in the hairpin or around turn 1."

On the engine... "The engine is amazingly smooth. The exhaust note, the engine sound, way better outside the car than inside. Inside, I didn't really like it that much. It's kind of a lower coarse sound. It's kind of an unusual sound. Boy, I'd love to hear that scream. That would be very satisfying."

Overall... "It was like work. You know, it's kinda like when you have a beautiful girlfriend who's kinda high-maintenance. The Lexus was a little bit like that. It is on kind of a fine line. It's not a good-time car in a relaxed, casual way. It's a good-time car in a serious work way. You know, I think this is a little bit like flying an airplane. You know, in flying an airplane you can get killed real easy, so you gotta be really on it. And that's how driving the Lexus is. You've gotta be really on it, right on your game, all the time. And for me, that's less enjoyable than something I can just haul *** in."

TURN NOTES

Turn 3: "Strong brake, immediate action. Accepted throttle well, but applied power with care. Exhaust/engine note much better outside than inside. Coarse inside. Outside: million-dollar sound."

Turn 6: "Stuck well mid-corner, accepted big bump there well. Needs more torque up the hill."

Turn 8: "Danger - ABS takes brakes away over the crest. Very quick into tight corner, no understeer. Quick transfer of weight in transition [during mid-corner]."

Watch the video to find out how fast the Lexus LFA went around Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. Check back tomorrow for the next Motor Trend Best Driver's Car contender, then come back to MotorTrend.com on Monday, September 12, for the full story and a special video.

ALL ABOUT RANDY
Randy Pobst is one of the most accomplished American race car drivers on the road today. His career includes two overall wins at the 24 Hours of Daytona, four World Challenge GT Class championships, five Sports Car Challenge championships, and nine SCCA national championships. He currently drives for KPAX Racing in the World Challenge series.

05RollaXRS

Wow! As expected by MotorTrend, he is harsh on the LFA. He criticized the transmission, brakes, engine sound etc.

Definitely, looks like they will not pick LFA as the winner. Lexus LFA is the first car they revealed so who knows what is going to follow?? The comments of the trolls on Motor Trend page are even more disgusting. The blind and biased hatred for the LFA always baffles me.

The video is simply phenomenal. The best video I have ever seen with the exterior cameras and the V10 scream.

My guess is, the other cars revealed will include the 458 Italia, '12 Nissan GTR and maybe the 4.0 GT3 RS.


http://www.fastestlaps.com/tracks/laguna_seca.html

ShadowISF

iTrader: (10)

LFA is top 5 in lap times. Beat the GTR.

05RollaXRS

I think they will be testing the updated IS-F around Leguna Seca as well. That is my guess.

TF109B

Dude is a troll saying the shifts are slow and his comments about the brakes are a one-off. No one has ever complained about the brakes! The stopping distance of the LFA is only matched by the GT3 RS, 94ft. from 60mph is top notch. Sometimes you gotta wonder about the testers, seems fishy.

05RollaXRS

Well, look at his lap time. That certainly does not seem like he is a troll. He did put down a very impressive lap for the LFA. The 4th quickest lap time ever in Leguna Seca history by a passenger motor vehicle. What remains to be seen, how well this will hold up against other high horsepower cars.

He only says "manual mode". It should be in shift level 7 and he never said anything about the engine/throttle mode as there are many engine/throttle response modes such as normal, wet and sport mode. To get the fastest shifts, Lexus recommends putting it in sport mode and using manual mode shift level 7. Ofcourse, too many settings can easily cause confusion.

Regarding the transmission, I compared it with many other videos of the prototype LFAs around Infineon, VIR and others by Scott Pruett and Justin Bell.

The upshifts in this video are happening instantaneously, however, this production #032 LFA has relatively downshifts compared to the early prototypes. There is a noticeable gap between the click and the downshift. In the prototypes, the downshifts happened right with the click. I don't know why, but this #032 is not downshifting as quickly as the P014 and the black prototype. My suspicion is the car's electronic settings are not at the fastest. Either sport mode is not enabled or the shift level is not at 7.

1sWt2GS

iTrader: (6)

that thing sounds lke a monster!

TF109B

If the gauge cluster is white it means sport mode. And I said his comments were trollish, I didn't mean he himself was one. And I don't mean troll like the internet losers. He may have the shift speeds lower than the highest setting. Who knows. Still an impressive lap.

05RollaXRS

Yes, it is still a great lap regardless. The transmission is fine. The lap time is awesome inspite of the weak sauce S001 tires. Ferrari was the only other manufacturer user of this tire putting them OEM on 458 Italia, but they officially completely ditched pulled out of it with Bridgestone and this tire altogether and opted for the Super Sport Michelin tires, which Ferrari in their press release said have traction levels comparable with the previous generation Cup tires.

05RollaXRS

Lap time list of MotorTrend Driver's car of 2011:

I will update this as new lap times get added

Lexus LFA: 1:36.39
Ford Mustang Boss 302 Leguna Seca Limited Edition: 1:41.06

TF109B

5 seconds difference around that track is a big deal. Of course its down 100hp, but imagine what the Nurb edition could do around there! Better tires and more downforce would be plenty helpful. Just goes to show how good the LFA is when you look at the fastest laps. Randy is decent but he's not the end all be all of racers. So his views are strictly opinion based.

05RollaXRS

Yeah, the 'ring edition hopefully will have a few tests next year.

Randy seemed to have praised the Boss 302 a lot compared to the LFA, which he says is "scary and that feels like an airplane that is trying to kill you". LFA did get the back end out 3 times in his lap (again, due to mediocre tires), but what surprised me was when he said the brakes going downhill did not work and he missed the apex. I am wondering the ceramic brakes must be worn out on #032 and Lexus did not replace them.

TF109B

I think hes biased to tell you the truth. He has an American fondness it seems sometimes. Not that its wrong. But he does drive Volvos in his Pirelli GT series.
Brakes can take a while to heat up on the LFA so he might be speaking about them while they're not fully up to temperature?
I think the tires do their job, even if they are Michellin Supersports. What tires do the 'Stang run? It's brakes had super fade to them, this has been stated before.
And for perspective lap times, he was about 1.5 seconds slower in the 'Stang than what R&T got. So maybe the LFA could have gone faster as well. Perhaps 1:34s?

05RollaXRS

I would not rule out the #032 brakes worn out since it has been given to the press many times so they might have been abused for a while now.

The Boss 302 Leguna Seca was wearing Pirelli Corsa R-compound track DOT competition tires (sameone's that R8 V10 GT was wearing in the LFA comparo. All of the Lamborghini models except LP550-2 wear the same tires). He sais the back end stuck to the asphalt like Velcro. He praised the 'race tires' a lot. No wonder he could not get the rear end to slide despite his best efforts.

If LFA was wearing Corsa tires (or Cup tires) R compound tires full competition tires, the lap time would have been similar to the GT2 RS.