15 Manliest Cars On The Road
5. Lexus LFA
In what parallel universe is this thing remotely Lexus-like? Well of course, they wanted to be on this manly list.
Lexus claims multiple justifications for the LFA program. The car, it says, casts a halo over the Lexus F line of performance machines.
It’s also a way for Toyota to explore new technologies, particularly carbon-fiber construction. And since Lexus says it will be selective about whom it will sell to—car collectors and high-profile individuals who use the car rather than park it—the LFA should raise the cachet of the brand as a whole.
For all that marketing happy-talk, the 2012 LFA is a serious outlier in the Lexus lineup and has had a convoluted gestation.
The program started in 2000, and Lexus showed the first concept car at the Detroit auto show in 2005. Next, a convertible version appeared at Detroit in 2008, though it has since been canceled. In the interim, LFA prototypes were spotted testing at the Nordschleife, and further, two race-prepared cars entered the 24-hour race at the Nürburgring in 2008 and 2009.
The engine is a 4.8-liter V-10 codeveloped with Yamaha. It’s a compact unit that makes 553 horsepower at 8700 rpm and revs to a giddy 9000 rpm. Maximum torque of 354 pound-feet peaks at 6800 rpm, with 90 percent available between 3700 and 9000 revs.
