The Trouble With The Lexus LF-A

Every now and again, a car comes along that is so unbelievably and desperately fantastic, that it inspires the people who made it to look at it, consider the future, and ask "right...so now what are we going to do?"  

Usually, these cars occupy the very fastest reaches of motoring – like the Bugatti Veyron. Sometimes however, they imbue their creators to look to the future with doubt and uncertainty because they possess something which cannot be purposefully engineered into them. The Lexus LF-A is such a car.  

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You can look at the LF-A from a tangible perspective and come to the conclusion that it's very good. But the LF-A is about so much more than what you can accurately quantify.

With a 4.8L, 552bhp normally aspirated V10, the LF-A produces what has to be one of the top 5 greatest exhaust notes ever to have graced the Earth. If God sings opera, I imagine he'd sound like an LF-A. Not only is the engine loud and musical, but revving to 9,000rpm – which it's capable of reaching from tick-over in just 0.6 of a second – it expels an intoxicating sense of franticness. 

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The engine contributes towards the overall feel of the LF-A. Once you've experienced the way each sensation the car gives you compliments everything else, you begin to reveal the car's spirit which it conveys to you through the medium of the magical driving experience it provides. It really is one of the greatest cars ever made.  

So, what's the trouble then, you're probably wondering? After all, the title of this blog begins with the words "The Trouble With...", meaning a trouble must be present somewhere.  

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Well, the trouble comes when you consider the answer Lexus had for themselves when they looked at the LF-A and asked "so now what?". Because in evaluating how that answer transcribes to their current crop of performance cars, you get the impression that it was a question they simply couldn't conclude.

Yes, Lexus's "F" division is all very well and good, showcasing the last bastions of normal aspiration in their respective segments; and of course, there's the LC500, which I hold as one of the great Grand Tourers of our time. But each and every one of their cars has something missing. Something indefinable; something that was present in the LF-A. 

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In "its" indefinability, Lexus can't actively engineer "it" into their cars – because they can't pin-point exactly what "it" is.

Perhaps if it wasn't for the LF-A, we wouldn't feel the absence of "it", because the existence of "it" wouldn't be engrained into our souls. But the thought of a world in which the Lexus LF-A had never existed is unthinkable.

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Even though its naughty to compare, the LF-A wasn't just Lexus's supercar – it was their way of saying to the world that they could be a genuine performance-car-powerhouse. Indeed, it captured the hearts of everyone privileged enough to drive it, and made people gasp at the thought of future fast Lexi. But the indefinable facets that made the LF-A loved have never appeared since in one of their performance cars. And to be honest, it's extremely doubtful that they'll ever make an appearance again.

Written by: Angelo Uccello

Twitter: @AngeloUccello 

Tribe: Speed Machines

Facebook: Speed Machines – DriveTribe  

Photo Credits: Lexus