LFA4Life

After reflecting upon what I believe represents excellence in these four areas and of course considering what the landscape looked like at a given car's release, I'm going with true. However, the discussion has really been quite interesting so far!

I was thinking if the LFA was not around, I'd have to go with NSX. I'm lucky to have had several NSXs over 15+ years and I still have a 1999, but I've had my LFA for just under a year. I'm not sure I want to get into a comparison based around specs or numbers, but here are a few more qualitative thoughts…

Heart & Soul - Both cars are soulful, but I think the NSX barely edges out the LFA. It's probably the analog nature that gives it more character. 25+ years on, it still feels "just-enough-tech analog" rather than "old analog".

Raw Excitement - Both cars offer an insane visceral experience, but a stock NSX can't touch the LFA's rawness. The NSX can be exciting if you want, but you'll get more out if you value a "satisfaction-based" excitement. The NSX wants you to be connected to the road, let you read it, and then take your inputs and execute them precisely. Most NSXs came with manual steering and it's almost like your hands are connected to the front wheels. I think the NSX engine is a jewel. There's a lovely induction note as you approach the 8000 RPM redline and it's coming from right behind your head, but there's a vacuum sandwiched between two layers of glass keeping the decibels down. Likewise, the stock exhaust is barely audible inside the cabin (or out!).

On the whole, the LFA communicates & responds essentially better than the NSX (or any Japanese car I've driven), but you also get bonkers throttle response, raw single-clutch transmission shifts, and of course an exhaust wail that should have carried an NC-17 rating. I'm not sure I can put my finger on it, but it's all executed in a very lovely Japanese way. If I had to quantify how Japanese, I'd say it at least 150%. I realize that's more than what's possible and I also know I said I wouldn't quantify characteristics, but I feel like in the LFA, Toyota delivered way more rawness and excitement than anyone imagined they could, so… you know!

Engineering - Both are significant pinnacles of engineering. For for the NSX: Honda wanted to build a innovative, pure, reliable, refined, functional supercar. Exotics back then only had 1 or 2 of those things, now they have 3 or all 4. Part of that is due to the NSX.

In the NSX, innovations included aluminum construction, Ti connecting rods, VTEC. Someone mentioned the interior. I find it sleek & functional, but it's more-or-less conventional. It must have taken incredible restraint not to go with a bonkers interior, especially in the golden age of crazy digital dashboards! Although hand-assembled and low-volume production like the LFA, Honda's Tochigi factory had a capacity of 500 NSXs per month. Compared to the 500 LFAs ever made, I'm certain this difference in production targets absolutely influenced many aspects of design…

You can do things differently when you only need to make 500 cars vs. tens of thousands. Once every few weeks, I get in the LFA and notice a small design element I didn't see before. It's truly something special & I can't recall another Japanese car with so many exquisite details - things Lexus didn't need to do, but did anyway.

SUNLINE

Nice post. Certainly hard to compare an NSX to an LFA. Sort of like comparing a 348 to a 458 Italia. Obviously the newer car completely smokes the older in every single way. So when asking about the best car the newer will always win.... Hands down. Any manufacturer anytime. Life and engineering march on. The only question that truly can realize any possible conclusion is; what is the most significant car to be produced from Japan? One could pose that same question to any country of manufacture and the debate will undoubtably go on forever. So let's keep the banter going and rephrase the question; Which Japanese SPORTS car was the most significant relative to the current status quo of the time?

DocT

It was certainly a nice post. As I have quoted previous thread "Would LFA still ever be the best in the next 20-25 years from now ? ". Probably not.
Technology will go on and improve. They can argue all they want. Or rephrase the Question; Which Japanese car that has changed the automotive world?

gengar

In terms of numbers, sure the newer car may always win. But look at the resale values of certain older exotics that have appreciated over time, and clearly numbers don't matter in the end game. Heck, arguably they don't matter even in the short term, as otherwise the LFA would never have achieved as much praise as it has.

Resale in the long term depends on owner/buyer emotion and a connection to the owner and prospective buyer. How else, for example, has 360 Stradale pricing increased nearly 100% in the last 3-4 years (and yes I keep bringing this model up for no other reason than I missed out on it) - for a car that, purely by numbers, is objectively beat out by far less expensive cars today that we wouldn't even consider supercars? Now, obviously Ferrari is not a great example just because they have the raw marketing power no other brand has, but it speaks to how important other factors are in determining value, rather than just "numbers".

And that's my big problem with the GT-R, as when a car is designed and engineered to compete on pure numbers, it implicitly lacks that emotional connection with owners - not to mention that it has to lose numerical advantage over time, and when it does, what point is there to the car then? That's further emphasized by the development of the GT-R being based on improving those numbers every year or two. And that's why you see such a bipolar affection for the GT-R, with so many internet fanboys vehemently and vitriolically demonizing any other vehicle on the basis of "value", but yet the GT-R has such low sales that Nissan limited production in some years. It's not just the GT-R, of course; once initial demand flared out, C6 ZR-1's sold for far under MSRP too. But it just goes to show the concepts of "value" and "numbers" don't work in the high end - buyers are looking for something else.

The LFA only has Lexus marketing behind it (that is, essentially zero), but it's obvious the LFA connects strongly with its drivers - hence the dichotomy of opinion between people who have actually driven it and those who can only post on internet forums complaining about how expensive it is or that it has no development/engineering value. We're basically 6-7 years on from when design was more or less finalized and you'd think the trolls would have found something else to do with their time, but I guess there are lots of rocks on this earth.

I said even before buying the LFA that I expect it to depreciate and my opinion hasn't really changed, simply because the supercar market is so saturated (and this is not a bad thing for true enthusiasts). But as I said before in this thread, the strongest thing the LFA has going for it is that few cars seem to be developed for driver engagement any more. For the sake of the enthusiast community and its future, I hope that changes. Even if that means cars subjectively "better" than the LFA eventually come out, regardless of the objective "numbers".

gpmillar31

There are a lot of experts and enthusiasts up here, but in my opinion the Lexus LFA is the greatest car to ever come out of Japan. Don't forget the car would have come out a lot sooner if they hadn't started to go to carbon fiber in 2005. Which means it would've been an even bigger gap between it and anything else in that time period. The fact that it held the record at Nurburgring shows that it is one of the best track cars ever, the custom exhaust, the reliability, the tachometer, the experts (including Jeremy Clarkson) falling in love with the car, and of course the gorgeous looks make it the best. Acura NSX, Nissan GTR cannot check all of these boxes. Imagine if this car had AWD with electric engines, it would probably be the fastest car in the world. Toyota Supra is second by the way.

SUNLINE

My vote for the most significant car to come out of Japan compared to other sports cars at that specific time period is the 240Z. Looked like a Ferrari Daytona, performed better than any English TR6 or MG, better that the Italian Fiat Spiders or Apha Romeos, was far far less expensive than a 911. Maybe the Mazda RX7 gives it a run, but it lacked the style and it came out a few years later

CrazyMPG

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vicdog

gtrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Sodium

And still is very true

SUNLINE

I second that emotion