So here’s the story of how I was given the opportunity to drive a Lexus LFA flat out on a race track…
(Video Link Below if you don’t feel like reading my Lengthy story, there is also a summary at the bottom)
Prerequisite information: * I teach people to race cars for a living
* I have driven almost every make model of super car
* I didn’t know the owner of this vehicle
* I wasn’t working when I drove this vehicle

The Approach

At our local race track I noticed some people driving their cars and I casually walked up to them and noticed that they were all watching a Lexus LFA go around the track. As we all gazed upon the car, one of the gentlemen said quietly, “c’mon, you got it! get some confidence!”, as the car weakly strolled by the front straight-away at about 40 MPH.
After chatting with them, I come to find out that they’re out there trying to learn to drive quickly, and that they didn’t already know. With this new found information I said as smoothly as I could, “Hey.. you know, I teach people to race cars for a living, would you mind if I sat passenger and coached you all up to speed.” and Lo and Behold there was an astounding ,”yes”, from the group.
Next thing I knew I was in the passenger seat of a Lexus LFA coaching some amateur drivers how to handle the beast that they had in their possession. After coaching the group of different people, my last student (Whom I assume owned the car), thanked me greatly for the coaching and asked if I wanted to take a couple laps in it to, “Show me how it’s really done.” .. And of course I nearly fell over and said, “Of course!”. Seeing as there are only about 500 lexus LFAs in existence, and about 180 in the US, I knew that this opportunity would never come again.
Sitting passenger in this gorgeous machine was a dream all in itself, but getting the chance to drive one… at speed….is on another level.

Cabin

I’ll try and give you guys my greatest impressions of the vehicle step by step as I experienced them, I’ll try and comment on things you don’t normally hear from all the video reviews on Youtube or Television.
Stepping into the vehicle is not easy, the gap between the opening of the door and the seat is notable, it really feels like you’re stepping into a cockpit.
The seat very hugs your body like a ‘love sac” or some kind of bean bag chair, it is very comfortable and you feel surrounded and supported by the seat, you also sit very upright. It almost feels like a cocoon. The seat belt is large and clunky, and the buckle feels like a television remote as you plug it into the connector (This is where the seat belt airbag is located, its a safety feature)
The pedals are close to you, and my knees were at a 90 degree angle where my body was leaned at about a 60 degree angle. I am 6 foot 1 inch, so I could definitely tell that the car was made by (assumingly shorter) asian developers…but at the same time, the seating position just felt….correct.

Driving

As we left the pits all I could think was…”no way this is happening”, and I was trying to take it all in, the sounds, the sights, the dash, the feeling of the steering wheel, everything; I didn’t want to miss a single detail.
With many cars these days, the “Flappy paddle gear box” are ****, but when it comes to super cars, they’re all very good. Mclaren, Ferrari, Lamborghini, but…they all miss this sense of solid metal on metal. The LFA’s paddles changed this for me, every click of the upshift makes a “Clang!” Sound, which you can hear in the video. It’s very satisfying, and it really makes you feel like you’re shifting the vehicle yourself.
The engine sounds throatier inside the cabin than the videos you see from the exterior, when I was coaching the people I had them shifting at 6,000 RPM because thats when it Sounded like it needed shifting, little did I know that when I was driving it needed almost 4,000 MORE RPMs to hit redline. The sound is just insane.
The motor doesn’t pull as hard as some cars, the Mclaren MP4-12c pulls much harder, and much more aggressively. The LFA pulls much like a Porsche GT3, very linear, increasing in strength the higher you are up on the rev range, about 350 HP at 4,000 rpm and the full 560 HP at the top of the RPM range.
Every shift bang, bang, bang, once you’re in the upper revs its just a monster. At every low speed, tight corner there was a slight squeal of the inside rear tire, I assume this is from an aggressive Differential setting, which I love.
The car is extremely stable and very capable, not once was I afraid that the back end would suddenly jump out on me, I actually wish I drove harder to explore the limits of the vehicle, but I wasn’t about to spin a $400,000 ultra-rare car that wasn’t mine.
The most outstanding feature of the entire car was the Brakes! the brake pedal is made of metal, and you could feel everything that was going on with the brakes, this is hugely important for driving cars quickly. Hard on the brakes they had amazing bite, and entering the corner, modulating brake pressure was so intuitive that I hardly had to worry, trail-braking all the way to the corner apex was nothing but a breeze and felt so natural. I wish every car had brakes like the LFA.
I drove each person in the group about 4 laps, totaling about 20 laps. I got to drive a Lexus LFA around my home race track for…..20 laps for free. I left the track in utter awe and disbelief, and thank god that one of the patrons recorded me driving, because there’s no better way to document a memory than with a video.

So here it is! Enjoy, and please leave any comments or questions below.
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Summary: At a local race track I chatted with a group of people who were novice drivers trying to tame the beast that is, the Lexus LFA. As a racing instructor by profession, I offered to coach them all from the passenger seat, they obliged, and then after coaching all of them I got the chance to drive. The power delivery of the LFA is linear, the sound is amazing, the shifts are satisfying, and the driving experience is visceral. I got to drive 20 laps in a lexus LFA and got to enjoy the whole experience. I’m one lucky person.

For me it goes LFA>458>12c
Not to say the 12c is a bad car, its ridiculous. Stupid fast, great handling, but the motor doesn't do it for me. Its a roar that doesn't really change pitch from inside the cabin, and its too loud, loud enough to hurt my ears. But the mclaren accelerates the fastest by far, the 12c accelerates even faster than an Aventador (from a rolling start).
the 458 was my favorite car before I drove the LFA, I love the sound of the 458 and the feel is great. I think the new generation ferrari's have the best feeling steering wheels in the whole industry, and the most intuitive steering. The 458 slides and moves around on the road, its very engaging. You really need to pay attention in a 458 to be confident and go fast.
the LFA, like said above, mixes that stability and feel of both the 12c and 458, but the LFA is down on power about 50-60 hp IMO. The one downside to the LFA is the gearbox, its a bit clunky, but i forgot about that after hearing the motor lol. And the LFA i drove had 47,000 miles on the odometer, so I'm sure the transmission has seen better days.