LexFather

Lets post them up in one thread for people to view.

Original promo vid

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yT5c02yPdM

05RollaXRS

This should be sticky'ed so that it is always at the top.

I will add some tonight.

05RollaXRS

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G34Qs...layer_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjMNy...layer_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAiBu...layer_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0s7m...layer_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvoRJ...layer_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJ6eQ...layer_embedded

05RollaXRS

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgAs7...layer_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtLBj...layer_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUT7K...layer_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NObxt...layer_embedded

LFA road and track prototype test:

http://www.roadandtrack.com/tests/vi...-lfa-road-test

05RollaXRS

AutoZeitung: LFA beats the SLS AMG



LFA truly dominated the SLS AMG in everything except the initial start where LFA's lack of launch control to get off the line fast holds it back, but it is clear from the high speed sector, LFA's top end power is brutal:




'Am Bremspunkt vor der Spitzkehre erreicht das Duett Geschwindigkeiten von 204 bis 208 km/h. English: 'At the braking point before the hairpin, the duet reached speeds of 204-208 km / h.

Hier sind stabile Bremsen gefragt, während es im Highspeed Sektor auf eine gute Balance ankommt. English: Here stable brakes are required, while in the high-speed sector to a good balance matters.

Im Dynamik Sektor zählen Agilität und spontane Reaktionen.
' English: In the dynamic sector include agility and spontaneous reactions. "

Die Zwischenergebnisse wurden in diesen drei Sektoren gemessen:
English: The interim results were measured in these three sectors:

Start/Ziel Sektor: Lexus LFA 21,85 sec - Mercedes SLS AMG 21,34 sec.
English: Start / Target sector: Lexus LFA 21.85 sec - 21.34 sec AMG Mercedes SLS

Highspeed Sektor: Lexus LFA 37,96 sec - Mercedes SLS AMG 38,68 sec.
English: Highspeed Sector: Lexus LFA 37.96 sec - 38.68 sec AMG Mercedes SLS

Dynamik Sektor: Lexus LFA 35,85 sec - Mercedes SLS AMG 37,48 sec.
English: Dynamic Sector: Lexus LFA 35.85 sec - 37.48 sec AMG Mercedes SLS

RUNDENZEITEN: Lexus LFA 1:35,66 min - Mercedes SLS AMG 1:37,50 min.
Engish: LAP: Lexus LFA 1:35,66 min - Mercedes AMG SLS 1:37,50 min

Conclusion:


'Der LFA dominiert ihn (Mercedes SLS AMG) in der Art eines präzisen Formel-Renners'.
English: 'The LFA, it dominates (AMG Mercedes SLS) in the way of a precise formula-racer'

05RollaXRS

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-3PBD1aXD8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeNJwS3coLk

TopGear LFA review:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIOgf...eature=related

TheStig lap of TopGear track (Very wet track with 'gingerly' throttle modulation by Stig):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NScF4...eature=related

05RollaXRS

LFA setting a world record around Goodwood race track with the fastest lap time of 1:24.8:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pR66D...layer_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lQ29...layer_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrCcv...eature=related

05RollaXRS

MotorTrend LFA vs Nissan GTR:




He woods the throttle again and we're off with a languid sweep of the digital needle. Sixth gear is tall (0.795:1), so we don't rapidly blast into the hundreds; we just keep inexorably piling on speed in 2- to 3-mph increments. The wincing and breath-holding begins just past 150, where lesser performance cars start to hit their limits -- electronically imposed or otherwise. Here the LFA is just relentless. Sure, there is no wind resistance on the dyno, but that only makes the exhaust note from the triple pipes sound that much more unholy -- like the union of a jet engine and Ducati race bike. No production V-10 has ever sounded this good. The digits 180, 190, 200 flicker in the cluster and we see 207 on the speedo before Dave lifts.



Subsequent testing proves the LFA to be dynamically superior to the GT-R in nearly every category. Any doubts that the Lexus is anything but a legitimate supercar are absolutely gutted on the test tarmac. Only supercars manage to brake from 60 in under 94 feet and pull 1.05 g on the skidpad. Sure, the GT-R retains bragging rights to 60 mph due to all wheel drive and shorter gearing, but to triple digits and beyond, it is all LFA. Then there is the way it handles our figure eight.


It works, but not all of the time. A great launch means only a chirp of the tires and blistering acceleration, but vary the rpm just bit and the LFA torches its rubber before rocketing down the strip. A slight delay between paddle actuation and SMG response further complicates a fast start.


In fact, the LFA hits 100 mph four-tenths faster than the GT-R -- and just keeps going. As both flash past the quarter-mile marker, the LFA never looks back.



Remove the collectors and speculators from the equation, and the LFA is merely another absurdly fast, glorious sounding supercar, right? Oh, if it were only that simple. Armchair experts, looking hard at our images and videos, will dissect and ultimately denounce the LFA for not being invincible. Sure, if a GT-R can catch it off guard, so can a Lamborghini Gallardo, Porsche 911 Turbo, Corvette ZR-1, and Dodge Viper -- all for a lot less money. But citing times, trap speeds, or dollar signs as enough reason to elevate any one of those over the LFA is missing the point entirely. The LFA belongs in the elite supercar club as much as any choice Porsche, Ferrari, or Corvette. It looks and sounds like nothing else on the road, and is as fiendishly fast as it is complicated and indulgent -- the very embodiment of the country and motoring culture from which it comes.

As for what its worth on the street? You need only hear the intoxicating bark of that V-10 touching 9000 rpm to know the answer.

Every penny.


http://www.motortrend.com/roadtests/...son/index.html

05RollaXRS

$375,000 Lexus LFA: Ferrari Fighter or Exotic Fantasy?
SPREADING THE GLOW The LFA is intended as a “halo car” to enhance public perceptions of the Lexus brand.
By LAWRENCE ULRICH
Published: August 19, 2010





QUICK STUDY At $445,000, the Nürburgring edition includes driving lessons.
IN the hermetic bubble of a racetrack — where economic reality has no pit pass — the Lexus LFA makes perfect, glorious sense.

As I rocket around New Jersey Motorsports Park, this supercar physically compels me to switch off skepticism, pay heed to the racing line and happily marinate in waves of sensory stimulation: the Formula One shriek of its 552-horsepower V-10, the tightrope balance and technical precision that makes even a Corvette ZR-1 feel like a Tinkertoy.

Hurry, ask me while I’m still in the driver’s seat: is the LFA worth $375,000? Sure, for the rare person who would prefer a supercar from Japan, not Europe.

Ask the same question after I’ve skimmed the latest unemployment figures or calculated the relative fun of, say, a $135,000 Porsche 911 Turbo, and the answer is, what, are you nuts?

Such contradictions make the LFA fodder for one of the year’s most interesting auto debates. Judged purely as an adrenaline-inducing performance tool, the Lexus tops a number of supercars I’ve driven — not just the similiarly priced Lamborghini Murciélago, but also the $1.3 million Bugatti Veyron.

As any car snob will remind you, Lexus is not Bugatti, or even Porsche. Created by Toyota just 20 years ago, Lexus can’t bank on the car-museum prestige or racing pedigree that makes millionaires’ hearts go flutter. And with apologies to Lexus, I have yet to hear anyone describe the LFA as beautiful. Even Lexus hasn’t spent much time strewing flowery adjectives over the styling, whose brute functionality recalls an Asian “Fast and Furious” movie car — albeit one on a billionaire’s budget.

What the LFA can claim is racecar-level thrills in a surprisingly comfortable, street-friendly car, developed in a cost-is-no-object program that lasted a decade. That, and exclusivity: the prototype I drove was the only LFA in the United States at the time. And, starting in December, just 500 copies will be built over two years, with 171 coming to America.

Fifty of the 500 buyers will get a higher-performing Nürburgring edition, whose $445,000 price includes driving lessons — a good idea — and a year’s pass at the famous 12.9-mile German road course for which it’s named.

During the LFA’s vexingly long gestation, Lexus showed a concept in Detroit back in 2005. Four years later, Toyota’s incoming president, Akio Toyoda, proved he wasn’t all about hybrids, racing an LFA prototype with three other drivers in the 24 Hours of Nürburgring. Not surprisingly, Toyota’s bosses soon approved the car for a limited factory run.

The production car is built around a carbon-fiber tub; a 4.8-liter V-10 that blisters the tachometer as it zings to 9,000 r.p.m.; and a center of gravity just 18 inches above the pavement.

Five years into the project, Lexus essentially started over. Realizing the car’s planned aluminum structure wouldn’t meet their performance targets, engineers substituted lighter carbon composite. Toyota — which officials note was started in the 1920s as the Toyoda Automatic Loom Company — had to create a unique loom to weave carbon fiber for the front roof pillars. In tandem with Yamaha engineers, Lexus tuned the engine and exhaust note as if it were a musical instrument, including a dashboard that admits only certain frequencies into the cabin. That might explain the television commercial that shows the LFA shattering not the asphalt but a champagne flute, with a crescendo of its soaring metallic tenor.

Tellingly, that ad doesn’t even mention the LFA by name. As with most “halo cars,” Lexus isn’t really selling the car, but the brand, said Paul Rohovsky, Lexus’s manager for advanced business development.

That halo-car strategy might seem logical for a Ferrari or even a BMW, whose owners obsess over performance and seek bragging rights. But will the typically conservative Lexus buyer appreciate that the brand that produced his cocoonlike LS sedan also makes the LFA? Or might a Lexus or Toyota hybrid fan wonder why Lexus is indulging fantasies with a fuel-thirsty supercar?

Mr. Rohovsky said Lexus fans were similar to the followers of other luxury marques, aspiring to the best a manufacturer can offer. “If we can do this kind of high-tech product, it tells people we can provide similar technology in your everyday car,” he said.

Mr. Rohovsky recalls driving the LFA in Southern California when the beaming owner of a Lexus IS-F sport sedan pulled alongside.

“He rolled down his window and said, ‘That’s what I want, baby,’” Mr. Rohovsky said. “He looked like the happiest guy in the world.”

Inside the LFA, the halo effect includes a 3.6-second sprint from 0 to 60 miles per hour and a top speed of 202 m.p.h. Plenty of sports cars today, including the Corvette ZR-1, can claim similar numbers, and many cost a fraction of the LFA’s price. Those calculations naturally lead skeptics to dismiss the Lexus as overpriced. But number crunchers often don’t realize that statistics say little about what a car is like to drive — or how it makes an owner feel.

An initial 150 cars set aside for Americans had been spoken for by June, when Lexus allocated 21 more. For those who can’t spell “recession,” a few slots remain open. And Lexus has also eliminated a litmus test that ruffled the feathers of enthusists.

Determined to bar speculators from flipping LFAs for a quick profit, Lexus had initially set up the deals to resemble a lease — albeit one that required a customer to hand over $290,000 in cash up front, with a $93,000 option to own the LFA after 24 months.

After that stipulation gave some prospects cold feet — over issues including owner liquidity and possible entanglements in the event of a death or divorce — Lexus relented, offering customers a choice of buying or financing the car. One catch: if an owner decides to sell within two years, Lexus keeps first option to buy back the LFA at fair market value, but not for more than the original sticker price. Lexus is also vetting buyers, seeking those who will drive their LFAs as a rolling advertisement rather than stash them away in collections.

The day before my test drive, a handful of LFA prospects had been invited to the track here, including some who needed a test drive before answering the $375,000 question. Mr. Rohovsky said that at each of four such events held around the country, at least one prospect stepped from the car and said, “Where do I sign? I’m ready to go.”

So far American buyers are exclusively men, and on average are in their mid-50s. Many have owned a Lexus, and they tend to be entrepreneurial types, along with one sports star whose name Lexus would not divulge.

Nor would Lexus connect me to the Midwest man who, Lexus swears, is leaning toward an LFA painted Passionate Pink, one of 30 available colors. (Mr. Mary Kay, perhaps?)

Mr. Rohovsky did allow that one “fresh green” LFA — a petri-dish shade wild enough for any Lamborghini fan — is headed to — where else? — Miami.

“He told me, ‘I want people to see me coming and going,’” Mr. Rohovsky said.

More than any luxury car maker, Lexus has been stereotyped, sometimes crudely, as the antiperformance brand, the epitome of masterfully built but soporific and soulless cars. Yet when Lexus does manage to create a car like the IS-F, a wildly fun-to-drive sport sedan, enthusiasts turn the argument around and question why any Lexus buyer would want one.

For those reasons, no matter how loopily unattainable the LFA may be, I’d hate to discourage Lexus from the sort of moon shot that the LFA represents. Getting out of the driver’s seat, I realized that I may never drive this rare supercar again. But that’s all right.

The LFA — like the Dodge Viper — is the kind of machine that might inspire Lexus or Toyota to inject some spirit into their lineups, or to create sports cars that real people can afford. If that happens, I’ll gladly volunteer to polish Lexus’s halo

05RollaXRS

CarAndDriver LFA test:








http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40KfPxqL0_I


http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/...take_road_test


Finally, the yammering and chin pulling is over. It’s time to see if Lexus’s long-time-coming LFA supercar makes supercar numbers. We’ve strapped on the gear, we’ve burned the gas, and we’ve sorted the data. And as far as we know, we’re the first to have done so.

Proving that it still has plenty of budget, Lexus parent Toyota jetted one of the prototypes of the $375,000 carbon-fiber LFA across the Pacific, put it solo into an enormous truck with enough empty space to hold another six or eight LFAs, and hauled it to Arizona for us. Toyota’s own Phoenix-area proving ground being closed to visitors and especially closed to media, we went over to the Nissan Technical Center North America’s 3050-acre facility in Stanfield, Arizona, about 40 minutes south of Phoenix, where Nissan happily rents track time to anyone who’s paying.

There it was, as white as an angel’s underwear, the glossy carbon-fiber dash and steering wheel reflecting our curious faces like funhouse mirrors. Many of the 200 or so employees at Nissan, busy getting their new full-size work van ready for market, just stopped and stared.

“What’s…that…doing…here?”

It’s here to prove it has the Right Stuff.

Ducts, Scoops, and Flares? Check

One may argue the details, but the LFA has a seductive shape—wide, low, wind-swept, and perforated with important-looking vents and ducts. Flush panels hidden in the duct cutouts that form the top of the doors grant access to the cabin. The cockpit swallows you up like a hot dog in a leather and carbon-fiber bun. The dash, the upswept center console, and the door sills are high, the glass as minimal as possible.

Exotics often are characterized by their odd controls, and the LFA meets the test. The stalks controlling the single front wiper and the high-beam/turn indicators are as thin as cocktail straws. You select reverse by reaching forward to find an obscure button on the left side of the instrument binnacle. The switch for the very important electric parking brake is down by your right shin. Every one of the exposed cheese-head fasteners in the dash (and there are quite a few) has “Lexus” engraved on it. Certainly, for $375,000, you should expect something different, not Toyota parts-bin kit. Even the tires were exotic. They were marked Bridgestone but had no model name or DOT certification stamp. We couldn’t find anything on the LFA that looks as if it had come off a Camry or even an LS460, except the plastic hood release.

Twist the key to on—the key is the only old-fashioned thing about the LFA—and thumb the steering-wheel-mounted start button. The 553-hp, 4.8-liter V-10 lights with a burst of authority, a throat-clearing mini-explosion up to 2000 or so rpm, just as the engines do in Ferraris and Lamborghinis. As does a Lambo Gallardo, which also has a V-10, the LFA has a deeper, huskier, coarser voice than a Ferrari.

Computer animators went to work on the all-digital displays, apparently, after an all-nighter watching Transformers movies. The tach needle doesn’t just appear at startup; it organically grows out of the center like a mutant beanstalk. Put the car in sport mode, and the displays do a quickie switch-o, change-o to a sportier-looking dial—at least a high-res pixilated digital one. Information screens slide out from behind one another, and the centered tach slides left or right as needed. It’s all fluid and weirdly organic, and very cool.

Wham, Slam, Thank You, Ma’am

It was a steep learning curve, out there on the mile-long straightaway of Nissan’s big oval. The LFA didn’t come with an owner’s manual, so we needed some time to plumb its strange controls.

The single-clutch six-speed automated manual has four modes: automatic and wet, where shifting is done for you; normal, where shifting can also be done manually; and sport, where shifts are manual only. In addition to the modes, you can vary the shift speed and shock using a **** on the right side of the cluster. Lexus advised us to try the automatic and sport modes. Unsurprisingly, we found the car quickest in the manual sport mode with the shift speed on its fastest setting. But you don’t get full transmission control. Even in full-manual mode, the transmission upshifts for you at about 9200 rpm, 200 higher than redline.

At the moment, there’s no launch control on the rear-drive LFA, so we ran a few acceleration runs by just stomping on the throttle. The LFA hit 60 mph in about 4.4 seconds, about as quickly as a stock BMW M3 and not terribly impressive. So we tried an old trick from our high-school days: the neutral slam.

The neutral slam was a way to launch automatic-transmission cars before the advent of the brake-operated shift lock (before Audi’s brush with unintended acceleration, in other words). The technique was simple: Borrow your parents’ car, go out on a quiet street, wind it up in neutral, and slam it into drive. Mayhem ensued.

The computers of most modern cars prevent you from doing that, but the LFA allows it. It took a few tries to get the technique perfected, but by holding the V-10 at about 3800 rpm and selecting first, and taking care not to go wide-open throttle and melt the run in wheelspin, we got a clean, repeatable launch that dropped the 60-mph sprint time to 3.7 seconds, right on Lexus’s claim, and the quarter-mile to 11.8 seconds at 124 mph.

Any car that runs to 60 in the three-second range is pretty thrilling. The LFA does it with its V-10 wailing loudly enough from its twin intakes and out of its three pipes to disturb moon dust. This is a spinning engine, not a twisting engine, and it spins with hyperactive quickness all the way to redline. The power peak is at a lofty 8700 rpm, the torque peak at 6800. In the midrange it feels mild, making more sound than fury. Once the needle passes 6000, things really start to happen. We ran out of room as the speedo swept to 155 mph.

Standing Shoulder to Shoulder with Giants

We’ve seen the Ferrari 599 make the 60-mph mark in 3.3 seconds, a number we found suspicious given its weight and claimed horsepower. But that car does have launch control in Europe and an active differential to help put the power down. The Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4 can pull it off in 3.2, but it has weight balance in its favor and the traction advantage of all-wheel drive. With launch control, the Lexus would undoubtedly shave a couple of 10ths off its 60-mph runs.

Compared with the 4000-pound, $320,000 Ferrari, the 3583-pound Lexus is light, but that’s still a good payload to haul. The LFA’s weight distribution is almost even—49.8 percent on the front, 50.2 on the rear. The carbon-ceramic brakes supplied repeated stops without fade, performing the 70-to-0-mph pull-down in a supercar-standard 156 feet. Out on the skidpad, the LFA pulled an even 1.00 g, above average for its size and weight.

We wrapped up with some hot laps on Nissan’s winding “marketability” track, not really a handling track as such, but a real-world simulator with enough curves, camber changes, straights, and pavement choppiness to simulate a back-road flog. Some magazines have already criticized the LFA for having artificial-feeling controls, but the example delivered to us showed the chassis sophistication of the European masters.

The steering is lubricated, the speed of the turn-in quick but not twitchy. The body is amazingly tied down for a machine that has no fancy shock-absorber trickery. There’s no disconcerting side-to-side motion or porpoising over the undulations. Because the torque is thinner in the midrange, you can steam at full throttle out of corners with no fear of the LFA’s breaking loose at the back. When it does start to slip, the release is so gentle and progressive that you quickly become comfortable with it. Within a few minutes we were probing the car’s limits in corners, the surest sign of expert chassis development.

Even given its long gestation, the LFA does not drive like a car from a company new to the genre and eager to impress. It drives like a car from a company that has done this type of car many times and isn’t worried that customers won’t be pleased. Like Ferrari, in other words. If Toyota can do this on its first go with the LFA, just think what it could do to the Corolla or Camry if the urge ever strikes. We hope it will someday.


VEHICLE TYPE: front-engine, rear-wheel-drive, 2-passenger, 2-door coupe


ESTIMATED PRICE AS TESTED: $375,000 (estimated base price: $375,000)


ENGINE TYPE: DOHC 40-valve V-10, aluminum block and heads, port fuel injection


Displacement: 293 cu in, 4805cc
Power (SAE net): 553 bhp @ 8700 rpm
Torque (SAE net): 354 lb-ft @ 6800 rpm


TRANSMISSION: 6-speed manual with automated shifting and clutch


DIMENSIONS:
Wheelbase: 102.6 in Length: 177.4 in
Width: 74.6 in Height: 48.0 in
Curb weight: 3583 lb


PERFORMANCE:
Zero to 60 mph: 3.7 sec
Zero to 100 mph: 7.8 sec
Zero to 130 mph: 12.9 sec
Zero to 150 mph: 18.3 sec
Standing ¼-mile: 11.8 sec @ 124 mph
Top speed (drag limited, mfr's est): 202 mph
Braking, 70–0 mph: 156 ft
Roadholding, 200-ft-dia skidpad: 1.00 g


FUEL ECONOMY:
EPA city/highway driving: 14/20 mpg

05RollaXRS

Japanese commercial:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkvcPFevMO0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=le8GOMn0Y6s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9WBHsXKe-c

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

05RollaXRS

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-e_l3dNQzU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErhBNTF0yYE

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

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wj7LeYkaWdE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsRxkei6bd0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ky4i3gAEV0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YznN3IiXXSU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RgvAoisG2w

05RollaXRS

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGrYe6CHhGM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkUS2fu_m2k

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAo6Zcbx4LM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iK_iJ0q3Q5E

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TP1tu...layer_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t33EtgZbB0I

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEy-WYmTLkM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7NOVrYc69U

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gRkyqsvQm0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ohdl9E0Ghm0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wV8OJ...layer_embedded

LFA bullying new Camaro Z28 into submittion on Nurburgring:

05RollaXRS

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUCVV...layer_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8o5pN...layer_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apN0nQYCSfM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQ3i7...layer_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSIE7...layer_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhEgpIMrv3Y

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8Coe...eature=related

05RollaXRS

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8XvEPozsmQ&NR=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YA2SK...eature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUj6q...eature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4y7q...eature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjYJM...eature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PHYmvNk-IU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZVPa...layer_embedded