TBH the LFA wasn't competitive on paper against its rivals at the time either, but at least it had a real vision for what it wanted to be and was actually badged as a Lexus.

With this vehicle however, it's become less about the vehicle itself and more about how it's all part of Akio's moronic plan for retribution against people looking down on his family name, and the shame of Lexus existing because Americans didn't want to be seen in "lowly Toyotas."

 

I don't really think it was made to compete with rivals. It was made to show everyone what Lexus could do, even though they had already done so a thousand times over.

Now look at it as a brand. Pitiful.

 

Yeah but they NEED an LFA tier car to have any attempt at being taken seriously, with production numbers and no delays this time. If they take this long and the car is still underwhelming vs the AMG GT they are going to lose what little image they had left.

 

The LFA would have been insane at the intended release date but they had to do the stupidity of changing the body material last second, extending the development time literal years

EDIT: To be more clear I have no idea why they changed and ended up dragging things out for a 39k NM/* result, that's literally over 5k worse than my sedan is that came out 3 years ahead of it. They should have released in aluminum when originally planned and it would have been world beating for a few years and won Lexus the crown for the first time ever.

The LC500 is their best chassis ever according to numbers and it's an aluminum based system with cast towers etc plus carbon used to lighten doors and the roof as further proof of the insanity of making the LFA full carbon. It would have made sense if they hit insane numbers like McLaren/Ferrari/Lambo etc but they didn't

I mean look at the Supra.....it's 40k NM/* and can you guess what company makes it?

 

It won't even be badged as a Lexus lol, there is no image tied to it beyond Akio's own ego. The F brand is long dead and the only reason the IS 500 was even made was because Lexus North America lobbied for its existence.

 

I still think there is a chance it is badged as a Lexus considering the entire design language of it is Lexus. I would rather throttle response and linear power and torque curves like the LFA, a lot of cars make big power or torque numbers, but they graph wonky, making revving the car out less rewarding, the Japanese seem to get this right more often than Germans.

 

No they don't. Not even close, there are countless exceptional feeling engines from Germany vs a handful from Japan

 

Lexus design and Toyota design are now one and the same - look at the recent IS facelift. As for this vehicle, it was introduced at Goodwood just a few months ago as the Toyota GT. Your only chance of it being badged as a Lexus is here in North America, because that's what Lexus NA has been fighting for (and to questionable success), but globally this is going to be badged as a Toyota or GR vehicle. Even looking up close at the prototypes, everything is labelled as Toyota, including the windows.

The only question now is what the hell Akio is planning to do with the GR brand, and how vehicle this vehicle will be badged under the GR brand if they decide to go through with that. But Akio absolutely does not want this thing to be called a Lexus.

 

The GR brand that is 66% other automakers cars? AND gets horrifically outperformed by everyone else?

 

Toyota GR GT incoming!

Still tbd if it will be marketed as a Lexus in the US.

 

Well, if there was any doubt left about which brand this product would be promoting...
These past few months must have been a roller coaster for the lobbyists at Lexus North America.

 

I'm gonna reach really far with this.. really really far.

Buuuuut, this whole event thing has been teasing a joint thing with Century, Toyota, Lexus, GR, and Daihatsu.. I wonder if they're going to announce an expansion of GR as a sub-brand, meaning perhaps Lexus will now get GR-badged cars (ala, Lexus GR GT?) Considering the other brands have already gotten the GR treatment (Toyota, Century, Daihatsu)

I mean, what's confirmed is that this car will have a GR badge. Perhaps it might even just be a standalone GR model. Another forum hinted that these could be sold in Lexus dealers in their own section.. but.. I just don't know. We'll see what happens.

 

IF they badge it as a Toyota/GR and it fails in all performance metrics it will be even more gas on the fire to mock them over lol!

 

It will not fail in performance metrics. It's too big of a project to have failed basics. It might not be up to par with some competition just like how LFA wasn't up to par due to delays. We can be certain this car would be better commercial product than LFA ever was, it will sell a lot better. But will it be better than decade old LFA? Heck no. They are not even in the same league.

 

This new performance car should be a Toyota because at least they have some performance cars in their lineup with GR Corrolla, GR Yaris, GR86, Supra etc.

Lexus is a dead brand for the most part and this new halo car will do nothing for it because there are no cheaper performance or even Sporty Lexus cars to sell.
You basically have a bunch of FWD based crossovers and some rebadged Toyota BOF SUVs.

LS, GS, RC, IS500 and LC will all be discontinued by the time this LFR joins the lineup. Therefore to me, i rather it be a Toyota which actually has long history of performance cars.