Would you like to see a return of the LFA?

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Would absolutely love to see them try again. Nissan is still refreshing the R35, Honda just released the 2nd generation NSX, Audi released another generation of the R8, and McLaren has become more 'apparent' (for lack of a better term) in the market so it would be nice to see Toyota get back into the supercar game. The main problem with the LFA was the fact they took too much time developing it, which made the price ridiculous. Was the car near perfect? Absolutely. And I think it will be a while before any other car is able to match how symphonic that car sounds. And the sound is just the beginning, because its handling was also incredible. And because times change and technology progresses, it would be very interesting to see them attempt to remake this car. It would be nice if they put that monster of a V10 in another car.

 

Problem is, what made LFA the most famous and what its legacy is shaping up to be, is not what another LFA can inherit. That is, an insanely high strung, high-revving 9500 rpm screamer F1 derived V10. If Lexus were to do another LFA, due to the emissions regulation and CAFE requirements, it would look something like the NSX. Twin turbo with some electric hybrid motor. In my personal opinion, LFA with a turbo engine will struggle to set itself apart from the rest of the supercar world.

Initially I was hoping for LFA 2, especially with the 5.3 Liter Code X version of the V10 that can produce somewhere between 630 - 650 HP, but I have come to terms with it. Therefore, I think for the forseeable future, Lexus should not do another LFA. They should bring a high horsepower LCF that is around $130,000 - $150,000, but Lexus will not dable in the supercar world for a while.

 

I think the LC and even more so an LC F will be near the top of the (reasonably) affordable high performance cars, but I would love to see Lexus take some of the Toyota Le Mans cars technology into a street car that would be at the absolute performance pinnacle. Making exciting, fun to drive cars is great, but if Lexus wants to maintain the image it set with the LFA it's going to need a successor.

Along the same thinking, I wish Toyota would brand their Le Mans race cars as a Lexus instead of Toyota. IMO this would help Lexus far more than it would diminish Toyota (I'd bet the average Camry driver wouldn't recognize an LMP car if it ran them over).

 

http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/201...r-to-bar-none/

I was re-reading this old TTAC article about the brainstorming of the LFA and how until 2005, the original prototype LFA was going to utilize an aluminum chassis instead of a full CFRP tub (at the expense of a 220 pound weight penalty for the aluminum chassis).

On the subject of this hypothetical thread topic, it would be interesting to see Lexus re-release the LFA as a revised "less-extreme" model, utilizing the original aluminum chassis design (though updated with chassis-tuning knowledge learned from the switch to CFRP). I'd imagine Lexus would incorporate some CFRP technology on the aluminum chassis in the same manner that is being done with the chassis of the Lexus LC. Companies such as Lotus have no problems making terrific handling sport cars using an all-aluminum chassis.

This would keep true to Lexus' promise that only 500 LF-As would be built (at least the carbon fiber version) and this aluminum-chassis version would probably fall in the $175k price range, making this revised LFA-variant a potential alternative to the new Acura NSX and McLaren 570S.

Since this aluminum chassis version of the LFA wouldn't outperform the carbon-fiber halo model, maybe Lexus can call this the LFB.