By Speedhunters

Car Culture At Large

Toyota’s efforts in Formula 1 may have ended, but the final run of their F1 cars sure didn’t hold up the rest of the action during the Toyota Motorsports Festival. Joining the race versions of the LFA, Toyota had a nice surprise for everyone, in the form of a production version of the LF-A, sporting a rather catching shade of matte black. Next to the race cars it sounded much quieter and refined, but it didn’t look any slower when it shot past the main straight.  Continue reading at Speedhunters.

—By Dino Dalle Carbonare

By John Coyle

Deputy Editor

Like last year, Lexus’ booth was outside by the proving grounds, and the roar of the Bondurant Corvettes was audible over the tunes the DJ was playing. There was a definite attempt to give the space a club vibe, which was compromised slightly by the fact that the turntables didn’t have heads on them, and the cocktails were actually mocktails, but whatever. There was a grip of customized IS-Cs—including Brian Fox’s hyper-green example—on hand this year, but the red-hot LF-A was the star of the show. The matte black doesn’t photograph particularly well, but in person, it looked sick. The styling in the front is somewhat restrained, which makes the aggressive lines of its hind-quarters look even better. Hit the jump to see more shots of the new supercar, along with the pics of some fresh creations from Brian Fox, David Huang, Gordon Ting, Clark Ishihara and David Rahemi, and TRD.

Continue reading "All Up In Their Booth: Lexus at SEMA 2009" »

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

Here’s some video of the LF-A in advance of the official unveil later today at the Tokyo Motor Show.

By Speedhunters

Car Culture At Large

Hot off the interweb, Lexus announce that they will enter and race two LF-A cars at next month’s Nuburgring 24 Hours. This news gives further crediblity to the rumours that a street legal version will hit one of the auto shows, probably Tokyo, soon.

The press release the announced the race entry also continued with “The cars are prototypes of the LF-A, which is currently being developed with an eye on commercialisation.” Continue reading at Speedhunters

By John Brooks

By Speedhunters

Car Culture At Large

After a few years of concepts and teasing, including the black prototype seen in the photo below, it looks like Toyota is finally ready to reveal the production version of the Lexus LF-A supercar at this year’s Tokyo Motor Show. With the current troubles in the auto industry, there has been some doubt over the future of this car, but it’s nice to know that Toyota has remained committed to the project. In addition to the production LF-A, it’s also been rumored that Toyota will show a version of the FR coupe that it’s building with the help of Subaru.

The 2009 Tokyo Motor Show is going to be much smaller and shorter than past shows, but it’s looking like there might be some excitement in the Toyota booth this October.

-Mike Garrett

By Ron Honig

WaytooFurious

Once I got to the Lexus stand at the Motor Show, I was immediately drawn to this stunning looking roadster. It’s based on the LF-A coupe and uses a mixture of carbon fibre and aluminium to keep it light weight and sturdy. With a 5 liter V10 it shouldn’t be lacking in the power department when it hits the road. More pics after the jump.

Continue reading "Lexus LF-A Roadster at the Melbourne Motor Show" »

Some evil evil evil competition is coming for the R35. More pics after the jump.

Continue reading "These Pictures Might Make R35 GT-R Owners Scared" »

On this day way back in 1927, Charles Lindbergh landed in Paris, completing the first solo flight across the Atlantic. Roughly 11 years later, after informing authorities he was planning to fly from New York to Long Beach, one of his mechanics would also cross the Atlantic. He said the different flight path was due to a "navigational error." Cheers to you, Douglas "Wrong Way" Corrigan. Here’s the news:

• Lexus has announced that it’s new supercar, the LF-A, will be priced over 225 grand. It’s not ugly, and it’ll probably be pretty quick, but 225 grand? Seriously? Even after vicious dealer mark-ups, the GT-R will be a $100,000 cheaper, and anyway, "Lamborghini" sounds a hell of a lot cooler than "Lexus." Inside Line via Autoblog
• A Senate committee which has a title longer than this post has just voted to allow California to enact its own emission standards. The Bush administration had opposed allowing the Golden State that right, saying that limiting emissions there could have "positive consequences for the environment." Detroit News
• After coming to an agreement with the local UAW, the General is set to have the Malibu production running at full speed again. But how long before another strike impacts American company? Auto Week
• Alfa-Romeo is set to return to the States—the goal is said to be 2010—and now Fiat is contemplating coming back to America. But who will it partner with? My money is on Ma Mopar. Motor Authority

I always enjoy hearing about the next big thing that will take on car makers like Ferrari and Porsche. It puts a smile on my face knowing that someone may actually come up with something better, and Lexus’s LF-A super car might just do it. The LF-A isn’t exactly ground breaking news—after all, it was 2005 when it made its debut as a concept car at the Detroit Motor Show. However, it looks like the sexy beast is finally going to get some serious testing ahead of its 2009 release by running in the 24 hour race at Nurburgring in May. Powered by a V10 engine that produces 520 hp, the rear-wheel drive LF-A looks like it could give some serious competition to the other supercars. Get the full story here and check out some cool spy video of the car on the track on CarDomain.