Daily Slideshow: 10 Coolest Unknown Features of the LFA

1. Hatchback

In his video about the Lexus LFA, Doug DeMuro, in his imitable style, picks apart out some typically well thought-out features of Lexus' supercar that he finds peculiar while wearing old gym clothes and standing in front of trees and poles. Presentation style, production value, and personal biases aside, he does point out a few characteristics of the LFA that you wouldn't know about unless you drove one, so let's take a look at a few of them.

When discussing a supercar, first you must talk about its luggage capacity, and that's just what Doug does. He informs us the LFA is a hatchback and lacks a trunk. He ridicules the lightweight, functional cargo cover (“most ridiculous cargo cover”) and notes that it doesn't adequately cover all of the cargo supercar owners might want to carry in their vehicle. Educated viewers will note the resemblance between the ultra-lightweight LFA's cargo cover and the cargo nets used for just such purposes (i.e. to keep stuff from hitting you in the skull as you throw your car through corners) in vintage sports-racers like 1950s Ferraris.

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2. Useful Information

Unlatching the cargo cover’s secure metal fasteners, Doug finds an array of useful literature that he finds puzzling. Not one but several manuals live under there, all of them giving you important information in an easy-to-use and archival format. Doug singles out a placard with cautions and recommendations as to how to care for the high-quality exterior finish of the LFA as his favorite—he finds it so hilarious he can't keep a straight face while describing it. The information on the placard gives you much the same advice as a high-end restorer of vintage sports cars would: automated car washes are a no-no, don't spray water into engine air intakes, etc. While such helpful hints pay dividends by helping avoid extremely expensive repairs and repaints, and by maintaining the car's originality, Doug feels the placard is most valuable as an auction day extra. He does like the LFA-embossed bag the books come in and notes that it could impress people on an airplane. 

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3. Opera Windows

This one is noticeable in photographs, but Doug points out that the side windows, which are encroached upon by air intakes, are only marginally functional as windows as only a small part of the glass lets in light.

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4. Special Seatbelts

Lexus has thought of everything, or rather, they thought about everything. If a feature made it into the LFA, that feature works well. Case in point are the seat controls: substantial, intuitive, and attractive,  and they are easy to find and use without looking. Dials and levers are just better ergonomically than buttons, as Chrysler Corp., maker of the push-button transmission, can tell you. Maybe The LFA people should be talking to the touch screen people at Lexus. The seat motor people were clearly comparing notes because your coffee will get cold while you wait for the seats to move forward enough to reveal the small spaces behind them. Back to the unusual features of the LFA though—the wide seat belts are wide because they inflate on impact. Airbag belts.

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5. Number Plaque

Lexus only manufactured 500 LFAs, and in the spirit of transparency, Lexus affixed a plate to the panel between the seats that displays each car's production number. In addition, every one of the LFA's V-10 engines was signed by the technician responsible for its assembly.

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6. Reverse Lever

Like many paddle-shifted automatic gearboxes, to get into neutral on an LFA you pull both paddles back at the same time. Once in neutral, you select reverse by pulling a lever mounted on the left of the instrument cluster—not a typical location for the gear. You have to engage neutral again on the way to first gear from reverse—so the LFA isn't ideal for pulling Rockfords.

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7. Adaptive Tachometer

Today's Lexus drivers might be familiar with the virtual-sliding-gauge instrument panel (something Doug DeMuro says is both a digital and an actual physical tachometer, but it is, in fact, only graphic, and has no physically moving parts.) But the LFA's display has a couple of other neat functions. In sport mode, the tachometer doesn't bother to show lower numbers in the rev range in order to make the engine speeds in the power band more readable. And, in a stroke of near-genius, the tach's redline increases as the engine gets up to operating temperature, hopefully preventing the incredibly damaging habit of rev-ing a cold engine.

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8. Aero Button

The LFA's rear spoiler lifts into place automatically as needed, but it can be manually operated as well... if you know where the button is. Hint: it's located behind the driver's seat, near the driver's outboard shoulder.

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9. Washer Fluid Door

In a why didn't I think of that? move, Lexus put the washer fluid filler under the same door as the gas cap.

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10. Hood Prop

The last item on this list might make you glad the washer filler is next to the gas cap. When you spend a huge amount of resources minimizing the weight of a vehicle, sometimes, as with the cargo cover, you go back to old race car practices. Lexus did exactly that by not giving the LFA heavy springs or struts to hold the hood up. A rod lives under the lightweight hood that has to be popped into position to hold it open. Yeah, they put heavy motors in the seats, but their research surely showed that people who buy a $400,000 car sit in it more than they work on it. Plus, the rod is cool in a racecar way. Doug did drive the car. He thinks it has a rough ride, and slow shifting and steering, but he likes the noise it makes. Unfortunately, Lexus says they won't be building a sequel to the LFA, but the ripples it sent out into the automotive seas won't be dying down anytime soon.

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To keep your Lexus from becoming one of those cars no one would possibly buy, check out the How-to section of ClubLexus.