The highlight of the recently concluded Tokyo Motor Show was undoubtedly the Lexus LFA. The long-awaited, forever ‘in the making’, $375,000 (that’s a whopping 1.8 crores plus the 110% tax if an Indian ever manages to be get his hands on of the 500 examples being produced!) supercar that has left auto-philes around the world in a quandary.
Let me explain, the mighty LFA with its stunning looks is not the fastest car around (head over to Bugatti for that!), it’s not got the pedigree of a Ferrari 599, it’s not the mid-engined, coolness personified Audi R8 nor is it a budget rocket ship like Nissan GTR. Its performance figures also leave a lot to be desired, and don’t get me wrong, a 0-60 MPH time of 3.7 seconds, a 550 HP V10 engine and a top speed of 202 MPH is nothing to be sneezed at. But for its price, one can lay their hands on cars that do a lot more. It is positioned as a sports car, so branding it as an ultra-fast grand tourer also doesn’t work. To sum it up, a Ferrari 599 has more prestige, the Lamborghini Murcielago is more nuts, an Audi R8 is cooler and a Nissan GTR is way cheaper and all these cars are as good as, if not better than the LFA. All this begs the question, why would anyone go out and buy the LFA and an even bigger one, why did Toyota invest so much time and money in it?
The key to this answer is Akio Toyoda, the great grandson of the founder of Toyota. The prodigal son stepped in to replace Katsuaki Watanabe as CEO and it seems the LFA has been his baby for quite some time. Akio Toyoda wants Toyota to shed its image of boring family sedans and inject some excitement into the line-up. The first step in this direction is the LFA. During its development, Toyota has grappled with and learned a lot about ultra light-weight cars. The LFA is made almost entirely out of carbon fiber, it is this technology that will benefit Toyota the most in the years to come. Unlike other car makers who outsource stuff like making the carbon fiber weave, Toyota has made it a point to develop its own capabilities in all the areas of the manufacturing of this car. That’s right!, all the technology that went into making the LFA were all in-house and the huge investment that went into the LFA is being viewed as investing in the future. Toyota can afford to incur a loss of few hundred million now (oh yeah, each LFA sold will be a loss for the company much like the Bugatti Veyron!), so as to develop method to make the processes much cheaper in the years to come.
There it is, the answer to all the questions about the LFA, it is essentially an experiment Toyota undertook to arm itself with the expertise required to make faster and hopefully cheaper cars in the future. It will be easy to write off the LFA as merely an attempt to woo younger buyers to the Toyota/Lexus family, an attempt to draw people into the dealerships. But it promises to be much much more. The technology will trickle down to cars like the FT-86, and exciting times are ahead for Toyota!
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