The phone rings. It's Bill from down the street, with an offer he thinks we can't refuse. While he's normally our local fix for luxurious, relaxing trips (that sometimes cause drowsiness), today he proffers something vastly different: all the speed we can handle for 12 hours. The catch is this deal needs to go down in the next three days. Miss that window and his special shipment gets loaded into a crate and flown back to the Far East. Think about it he says, and get back to me.

What is there to consider?

Bill, you see, reps Lexus and is offering a 552-horsepower dose of nose-candy-colored LFA. We're intrigued, but also irked at the short notice and implication that we're easy and desperate for such a rush. Like we'd just drop everything and clear our schedule for a taste of this $375,000 LFA.

We call him back and arrange to meet the early the next morning at an industrial park off the freeway in Riverside, California.


They say the first hit is free, but this one is going to cost us a bit of our soul. Lexus USA owns but one LFA, a jet-black model used for advertising and potential customer events. This white one is on loan from Japan at substantial cost to the company -- air freight alone is some $40,000. Its time is up and it needs to go back ASAP, hence the last-minute notice.

It is also a preproduction prototype -- a crusher in industry parlance. It has no VIN or license plate, and sits on non-DOT-approved tires, so we can't drive it on the street. When we're done with it, it gets shipped back to Japan where it will likely be reduced to a fine, expensive powder. To ensure we don't facilitate an earlier end on this side of the Pacific, two watchful handlers will accompany us while we have it.

So, just how are we supposed to assess the LFA's street value with such draconian measures in place? We have a few tricks up our sleeve, but first we need verify its potency. Off to the speed shop.



Read more: http://www.motortrend.com/roadtests/...#ixzz0nXrhKBQ4

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.

Read more: http://www.motortrend.com/roadtests/...#ixzz0nXnXHffP

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.

Read more: http://www.motortrend.com/roadtests/...#ixzz0nXmkB9pG