Lexus LFA - Jay Leno's Garage

[Music] welcome to the episode of Jay Leno's Garage featuring to this week one of the world's greatest supercars certainly the greatest supercar ever come out of Japan we're fortunate this is brought to us by our friend Patrick hung over at Road & Track magazine he was driving around the neighborhood and I said hey come on by and we'll shoot a Patrick come on in how are you good I knew the executive editor that's right the executive editor rodent track magazine and of course this as I said is the LFA so why do you have it now tell us how you get to drive this well it's a special car as you mentioned earlier that's a supercar from Toyota and they have been developing this car for a while and they had an opportunist a well maybe Jay would like to see it yeah I brought it by well this is one of those cars you've probably heard a lot about and we'll go into it as much detail as we can you know Japanese automotive history goes back for the most part 50 years that goes back further than that but in terms of having heritage probably the first great Japanese car that I can think it was a Toyota GT as a kid I saw it in the James Bond movie but I thought it was a very sexy car had that Yamaha had on it yes it made 150 horsepower then of course the 240z but the 240z was never really an exotic because they they built a lot of them and that was meant to compete with the triumph and the mg and all that stuff the Toyota GT was pretty exclusive I didn't know how many they built you know I do not but that definitely was the inspiration trying to draw the heritage line right back to history to make a sports car for the brand and of course the Mazda Cosmo as well but that was never actually a supercar and of course the Honda NSX that's another great a Japanese supercar as well but this one is very very exclusive their only building 500 of these worldwide yes 500 worldwide and you'll probably see no more than maybe 150 of them yeah 170 is supposed to be allocated for the US market and it's very Japanese and by that I mean the styling you know it's funny if you go back to the 60s and 70s the Japanese copied a lot from the Italians and the Americans stuff like you look at the composite of Cosmo it some of it looks like a Thunderbird some of it looks like an Alfa Romeo it has a little bit of everything in it whereas this is a pure Japanese and the thing I like about this is every piece of this car much like these Bugattis behind me bespoke by that I mean they're made specifically for this car this wasn't a car that used somebody else's transmission somebody else's breaks somebody else's engine it was all done by Toyota as an engineering exercise essentially not to make money because even it I think these are priced at $375,000 art now at that price point they don't make any money on this car that's how much engineering when it goes into it it is what 4.8 liter v10 b10 so tell us a little bit more about the car so it's a like you said it's a clean sheet of paper from ground up so it's unusual for any car design to have the opportunity so it's basically most out of carbon fiber the tub is carbon fiber all this ApS a pillar is yeah aluminum subframe so the engines it's mid front engine they call it v10 like you said 4.8 liter about 560 horsepower 350 pounds feet of torque six-speed single clutch transmission paddle shift transmission goes to 0 to 60 about 3.8 seconds top speed 202 miles per hour it's the engine I think it's one of the best feature about the car because sound just like a Formula one engine actually to draw on the AMA heritage is tuned and helped by Alma haunted development right and it's one of the greatest sounding engines of all time and you'll find that out you know in just a minute Yamaha obviously builds acoustical equipment instruments and whatnot so sound is very important to them so to get that right sound this a pillar as he said is carbon fiber in fact I believe it's one of only two circular looms in the world that could make the carbon fiber for this piece you know I've seen this car get a lot of criticism people go it's not as fast as the zr1 oh it's not as quick as it is it's not but when you have to look at the whole package it is so sophisticated the center of gravity is so low and it is a driver's car it's not a race car it's meant to be an extremely high performance Road car and hopefully we'll find that out in the minute or two when we take it for a drive and this is extremely light for a road car I think this is 3,200 pounds hundred pounds and that's probably with fluids as well 20 inch tires those 20 20 inch carbon ceramic brakes yeah so there's a lot of you know super card details and write and technical features about this car that the connecting rods are titanium right right which is another cool thing about this car there's a lot of you know little things that really make this car a class of its own yeah the engine is really if you like to open the back of a watch and look inside you'll like this engine because it revs to 9,000 rpm that's the redline 9000 which is which is pretty high you know if you ride motorcycles like I do 9000 doesn't seem like a whole lot but in an automotive engine this many pieces moving that quickly it's it's impressive a little rev from zero to 9,000 rpm in less than a second yeah say 0.9 actually point I heard point six that's what I heard so I don't know maybe maybe all right the factory tells us yeah yeah and I think that's one reason they say that the the tachometer need to be digital right because if you have a regular physical part you wouldn't be able to keep a needle right right well you know what's interesting about five years ago mr. Chaddha himself brought the prototype to our garage here ankle and I was very impressed I mean it was pretty cool to see so it's not that different from the production vehicle let's see what else have we got here well we come around back you'll see the extractors for the heat and three exhaust tailpipes three exhaust tailpipes down here that's kind of cool so good design and you know one of the things that Yamaha will look at was a exhaust No so there's a sort of a resonator inside and controls a flap that controls one of the low rpms and when it's higher it opens it up to give it to more a free-flowing exhaust and engine to breathe you know people saying why do they build the car they're not gonna make any money with they make a ton of money on Corollas and all the other things but you know you have to have something that excites the engineers and excites the business like to me I Nissan had nothing I was really interested in but then they come out with the GTR and suddenly I'm interested in the Nissan product line because of the way they who they develop that car maybe their technology will filter down and when you give the engineer something exciting to work on like this it filters down to the dross of consumer in draw us to you know the passion of our Tia represents I know to it is gonna inter Lamar this year Oh a hybrid I like to go against Audi you know which is a pretty bold statement because the last Tiger to really have any sort of sporting pretensions would have been the turbo Supra problem from the up to about 99 I mean a little sports car the mr2 all around mr2 was a great car there was another great car as well I mean to me if you have an mr2 this is you look at this like who is what you aspire to you know so it's fascinating because sometimes the European manufacturers pick on the Japanese there's no soul in the car there's not enough you know this type of thing that kind of nonsense well you look at something like this you realize that's not true and the gt-r as well I mean Japanese Japanese engineers and Japanese car enthusiasts the ones I've met it was passionate as any in the world so this car is a classic example of that let's take a look at the interior now what I just here's a it's a you go door handle right here Alcantara is that what that is yes yeah and leather leather a lot of carbon fiber trim details I'm a steering wheel navigation that's you know the motor amenities you know model shifters we keep calling it Toyota but it's Alexis Alexis it's Alexis you know and of course being Alexis it has that Lexus quality of you just take of a granted everything works you know your air conditioning is in your sound system and beautiful steering wheel yep and you have all these details you know it's like the formula lifestyle right right engine start button these are great too it's a sort of the release robust kind of shifter is it one that one side is up one side is down yep down and up yeah and what's interesting about this instrument gauge is that it's almost there's a button when you push it it moves the the tach model to the side so you can see the settings on the left side oh it's pretty neat yeah it's kind of a little cool well let's open the hood let's see what this engine looks like oh I see and look carbon fiber look how light that is it's still a stick but it's a carbon fiber stick yeah it's amazing how light all that is this is an air intake obviously it's really can tell is really far behind and right in the middle yeah so really you're going to see five of the cylinders here and the other five are under the dash there don't even think about working on this car yourself okay just forget about well the nice thing is being Alexis you probably never ever have to touch it you know that's sort of the cool thing about that's what Lexus is known for you know is the quality of course now it has the soul as well with this that are traction control everything else yes definitely has a lot of electronic feature to help you drive yeah there's a few settings Auto Sport and wet you don't want get in trouble in the rain a lot of and this is real carbon fiber a lot of cars have the carbon fiber look carbon-fiber accents which don't really do anything this is actually carbon fiber this you see the detail yeah I mean this hood doesn't weigh anything oh my god it's amazing how light it is and those tires are built specifically for this car by Bridgestone the upside is they're built specifically for this car the downside is they're about 500 bucks apiece so keep keep your burning rubber to a minimum how do we open the trunk as well this would be so much room a little and light in there in keeping with supercar tradition there's no room at all really well I was a little bit of room you could take maybe a suitcase or two maybe a suitcase an extra parent Underpants or that's it yeah but again nicely done it I guess this is to keep people and looking in and stealing your rights all that kind of stuff but you know it's this is what these cars either get it or you don't and I think you'll find it's an automobile you have to drive to really appreciate it's a bit like to sit around ease people are gonna go why do you drive that thing well it just doesn't feel like any other car and it's between champagne and beer you know this is a very sophisticated instrument it's it's it's it's so well put together and so such a tight unit that even though there may be other cars that are faster could do Nurenberg ring quicker I don't think you'd enjoy driving them as much as you do this that's that's kind of the fun part about it yeah I think one of those one of those cars were the more you drive it you more appreciate these little details yeah they come along you know how the instrument panel works how the paddle ship you hear the sounds yeah and then the engine obviously and all the detailed trim level under it inside the car and underneath the hood and I think that's really start to make you gravitate towards a cry even more you know there's been a shift in the last couple years of super cars you can drive every day the new McLaren is an example of that cost of the 911 certainly on 11 turbo but you know for years there whether you had the Countach and some of the Ferraris these are cars you took out on a Saturday and you know there was always especially in the 70s and 80s some carburation or electrical problem that just made them oh my god well people don't put up with that anymore you know this is a car I imagine the first oil change is one on this ten thousand miles something like that well yeah yeah just the fact that this demonstrator has 17,000 miles on it that's not something you saw back in the day you know supercars well even most Bugatti Veyrons the average owner puts thousand miles a year maybe you know this is a car you could drive every day in many ways I think the Japanese all the nsx change that where it's actually a usable daily car and I think sort of carry on the same theme to be able to have a great performers car you can take it down the grocery store to you if you want now tell me about the suspension the suspension is unique in a sense that it's designed up front is a double eight arm and the backs a multi-link but what's interesting is a lot of this car suspension tuning is done at the Nurburgring mm-hmm as windy and super cars so he has ability to handle the track and different surface conditions really well now oh speaking of that aren't they building 50 special Nurburgring addition to this absolutely actually that's a good point is especially gear for that track that trike is obviously something special and to go fast in that track you need a special tweaks to it so they are 50 cars that you quit with equipment and features that would give it towards going on that's an extra 70,000 above the standard price yep make me mad if I just bought one and then the next day the new high performance version comes out but it's only ten more horsepower yeah and it's a few more suspensions but you know this people get caught up in this whole Nurburgring thing driving a car in the street is where you are 99.9 percent of the time and to me for that was a great thing about the original f1 McLaren was designed to be a road car so it just drove and handled fantastically on the road it was one of these things it was so hard you bang you know you just you know you almost hurt yourself because it hits so hard you want to have some compliance to it and that's what I like about this this is built to be a road car that with some tweaks like the f1 could go do yeah and yeah and I think mr. Toyota it does race this car yeah on every last couple of years at the Nurburgring 24 hours so it is capable for racing applications yeah and the cool thing is being a Lexus you get that whole Lexus service deal you know they're not snobby they take they take care of it okay yeah yeah they take care of you're pretty good let's take a ride [Music] there's an adjustment here so you can adjust how aggressive you want the shifting I like it very aggressive you know when I was a kid and I worked for mercedes-benz when the six-point-three came out they used to have that transmission just shifted like boom boom that Americans didn't like it but I loved it because it just connections Authority yeah connected right away you know so that made it very very cool very very comfortable car not cramp a lot of leg room a lot of pedal room I like these kind of wheels that are cut off like this so you're not hitting yourself in the knees which is always a problem for me paddles don't move with the steering wheel which is kind of weird it's different school of thought on that definitely yeah that people like a stationary some people yeah I mean to me if I'm moving it I can because I'm you know [Music] you definitely see the difference with a double clutch gearbox with a double clutch gearbox you're already in your next year and it just boom even though this is quick what do we have here this is their navigation it's like an eye drive but it's kind of cool it has notches yeah it lets you know it on something yeah this is actually fairly new for the last two years you know the one thing I like about driving older cars is this a pillar is so thin but this this has good visibility you have nice type of break in there so you don't feel but you can turn off track different settings sport right right wait well around town it's very docile around town it drives like a Lexus you can hear the motor you can hear it want to unleash so that's what we'll do we'll take it up in the hills a little bit and then take it out in the freeway and see how it goes but I'm not sure if the sound is coming across to the video but it sounds fantastic in the car I mean it's this is the classic case of a tuned exhaust yes I mean it's the sound is literally piped into the interior here so and you're getting the real sound of the engine it's not like an electric vehicle where they make it sound like a gas car you know the funny thing is on this car 4000 on the tach is where 2,000 would be in a normal car you know just in terms of using an analog type [Music] incredibly rigid very very very tight steers very nicely very comfortable car plenty of room that's this way you're not cramped at all you know for the longest time in the 70s and 80s on supercars you're always canted off to the side that was the great thing about the f1 McLaren he sat right in the middle so you could be nine feet tall and you still have plenty of room you know cars like this is so fast it's so smooth you actually need the sound to tell you that you're breaking the law because you have no idea you know the sound is so much a part of the entertainment of a vehicle like this because the car like this you wouldn't even listen to the radio [Music] I'm sorry do get spoiled by the double clutch gearbox because being Alexis the only gauge it moves this phenomenal attack oil temperature water temperature oil pressure everything stays exactly same no matter how hard you're driving [Music] boy what a sophisticated car this is you know again it does there are other cars into individual things better this does everything extremely well I mean there are other cars that are faster and may handle better but this as a whole packages is is pretty unbelievable and it is a supercar you can use every single day all the little details yeah stringfield's yeah transmission that's the question is will it do a Burnout and the answer is it's not my car it belongs to Toyota it costs $400,000 so I'm not gonna do a Burnout but I'm going to try I'm going to continue to drive it and let's see how it does in the freeway [Music] Wow I could drive this every day [Music] attract control still open it yeah you know it's funny to me when I meet car guys and in their 20s good love Lamborghinis and stuff and they don't know how to drive a stick I love them they're kind of embarrassed you know cuz their dad never had they don't know anybody has a stick [Music] yeah Patrick put it well he said it it really is the sound of precision you really appreciate hearing that noise and like I say there might be other cars that could go a little faster but they're not going to sound any better doing it [Music] the sound bellissimo you know every decade or so they proclaim the supercar is dead and because of fuel restrictions and economy we won't see supercars anymore and then we go through a dry period and then inevitably what happens is the engineers get to work and build some of the greatest super cars of all time you know when the Viper came out in the early 90s with 400 horsepower they said that was it people pay big money because they never build anything that powerful again well of course it changes and we're in a new generation of super cars super cars like this you can drive every single day that required no more maintenance at a Corolla or any other Lexus it's it's it's pretty amazing so I want to thank Alexis for letting us borrow this extremely rare limited production automobile and also road and track Patrick for bringing this by and I'm gonna go make some o noise see you guys next week [Music] you

Channel: Jay Leno's Garage

Views: 3,301,034

Rating: 4.8457828 out of 5

Keywords: Jay Leno, Automotive, Cars, Garage, horsepower, Jay, Leno, mods, custom car, Speed, Fast, modded cars, mechanic, fastest car, Jay Leno's Garage, cars, exotic cars, interview, custom, Leno car, funny, Leno funny, car show, Rare, Motorcycles, racing, jay leno interview, auto, drive, power, fast, amazing, cool, the cars, vehicle, Lexus, LFA, Supercar, Japanese supercar, road and track, Lexus LFA

Id: WNgQijqB_60

Length: 22min 32sec (1352 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 26 2012

Reddit Comments

[u/LTCM1998]

Seiko Sportura SLQ009.

It's a limited edition if memory serves me right.