Why the Lexus LFA Failed…Or Did It? | Bumper 2 Bumper

(car acceleration) - When the luxury division of the world's second-largest automaker sets out to build its first supercar, what do you get? Well, you understand this. A masterpiece of Japanese engineering, which has been in development for 10 years. Only 500 of them left the assembly line. An Eastern exotic, with possibly the best sounding engine in a production car. A halo car that everyone wanted to like, but no one bought. So why didn't it work? Well friends, get ready to laugh and learn. Because we're going to crash into the Lexus LFA. Jeremy Clarkson's favorite car. He may or may not be my father. (upbeat music) Many thanks to our sponsor this week, Raycon Earbuds.

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Click the link below and get an extra 15% off your Raycon headphones order. They are called E50, which is also a BBS Wheel model and looks very good. What could I put in that car? This is how you can remember it. (upbeat music) First, let's talk about the concept of a halo car. No, not the Warthog, damn nerds. A car halo is a reminder. It's a car built by a brand to remind people what it's all about. You build a car halo to create buzz and attract new customers. A good example of a successful halo car would be the Audi R8.

The LFA was Lexus' halo car. Created to not only bring a non-traditional look to other Lexus models, but also changed the way the company did things going forward. (upbeat music) Before we can get into the LFA, and I promise, we will, I hear it's hard to get in. We have to talk about Lexus, the luxury division of Toyota. Back in the 1980s, Toyota started the Flagship One, or F1, project. Not to be confused with Formula One racing. Without budget or time limitations, the F1 team set to work on what would become the LS400. The LS laid the foundation for the brand for years to come.

Build a well-designed car that hasn't been rushed to the showroom. Take your time, do it right, it will pay off. So why do I mention the LS400? Well, the history of the LFA parallels the history of the brand's first luxury sedan. The process of building a supercar would create a special sauce that would spread to the rest of the Toyota range. (wet, mushy sound) The first car was completed in June 2003, but it wasn't until 2005 that Lexus revealed the first two concept cars. Two years later, the second concept car appeared and, finally, in 2009, this beautiful object that you see before me was presented by Akio Toyoda himself.

The LFA. L for Lexus, F for Fugi Speedway, the Lexus-owned race track where they developed the car, and A for Apex, the top of the food chain. So what makes this car so special? And why didn't it work? (upbeat music) The LFA's chassis is carbon fiber, the body panels are, you guessed it, carbon fiber. The hood? Well, that's just made of carbon fiber. The steering wheel is carbon fiber, for God's sake. I'm the carbon fiber Oprah here. You get carbon fiber, you get carbon fiber, you get carbon fiber, everyone gets carbon fiber. But in the early 2000s, only a handful of sports cars were made with this space-grade material.

In fact, the LFA's chassis started out with aluminum, but after much testing, they decided to switch to carbon fiber. It's four years of development and they said, "Actually, you know what?" We should probably make the "now with carbon fiber, it's better" car model. Remember when I said this took 10 years to make? This is the reason why. But remember, this is Lexus. Avoid commitments at all costs. Take your time. In true supercar style, the car has a series of air intakes and vents to cool things down. The edges of the exterior mirrors are uniformly shaped to send air to these rear air intakes, which then reaches the rear-mounted radiators. - Radiators. - At the back, you have a wing, with a hatch that lifts up when you reach 50 miles per hour. (car accelerating) I tried-- ♪ Pop pop pop pop ♪ ♪ Raising and lowering the stretcher flaps ♪ It just doesn't sound that good. (upbeat music) Remember that delicious dripping sauce Lexus wanted before?

Well, the RCF got some. We talked about these breaks when we did a

bumper

to

bumper

on the RCF Track Edition. If you want to have fun with the sauce and myself, check out the video after this one, I'll post the link in the description below. For now, let's talk about the wheels. We can't take off these 20-inch BBS wheels to reveal the sweet suspension goodies hidden underneath. Mounted at the front is a double wishbone setup and a multi-link arrangement at the rear. (upbeat music) While Lexus spends years on all this carbon fiber manufacturing and loom development, they're also working on the other piece of the LFA puzzle.

The motor. Hey, I'm here. A V10, the size of a V8, which weighs less than a V6, makes 553 horsepower and 354 pound-feet of torque. The 4.8-liter naturally aspirated engine accelerates the LFA from zero to 60 in 3.6 seconds and tops out at 202 miles per hour. With a 9000 rpm redline and 9500 rpm fuel cutoff, just to keep things safe? Um, let's just say it sounds pretty sick. (car accelerating) How do you accelerate so high? Well, it has forged titanium connecting rods, aluminum pistons, solid titanium valves, and magnesium alloy cylinder head covers. It is a very expensive and very light metal. It is an engine with F1 pedigree.

This car is capable of performing more than two lateral Gs in corners. All while the pressurized oil makes sure everything is lubricated inside. If there's one thing I know, it's that lubricant is important. (wet, squishy sound) These grooves are new and badly in need of some lubricant. That's from our new program, HiLow. We built two Zs and compared cheap parts to expensive parts. You can only see it on that other social network, but it will be here very soon. The engine gets its oxygen supply through a two-stage variable intake manifold. Then it goes to 10 individual throttle bodies.

Ah, no wonder it sounds so good before screaming the dual-stage titanium muffler. Inside the intake system, there is a surge tank that further helps give the LFA its sweet induction sound. Do people tune the sound? Yamaha engineers. In fact, the entire engine package was co-developed by Yamaha. Now you may know Yamaha as the company that sells God's greatest gift to man: the Wave Runner. But they started as a piano and reed organ company. They know how to make instruments sound good. Mmk? And for them this engine was treated as just another instrument. And in true Lexus style, it was designed to enhance the driving experience with sounds transmitted directly into the cabin.

Let's see how the cabin sounds inside. I think it will be a really nice listening experience. I'll see you guys there. (Laughs) All that air comes in and the space metal, as it spins, makes a sound that makes me cry. I'm not kidding. It may be the best sounding car of all time. Low-liter, high-cylinder engines sound amazing, but this engine sounds especially unique. You get three channels of sound coming into the cabin. The first is the main intake noise that comes from that tuned surge intake I mentioned earlier. It's sent somewhere over here, just below the main instrument panel.

The other two channels are in the upper bonnet opening and in the rear reflector. The top deck provides mid to high range tones. And the lower reflector picks up the engine's resonant sounds. These three channels are combined to create a 3D surround sound concept. It is the most analogue thing about the interior of this car. It is not electronic. You cannot turn off this sound or lower the volume. It's pure, raw engine acoustics, and no other car sounds like it. The exhaust sounds get changes depending on the revolutions. Below 3000, a dual-stage exhaust valve remains closed to keep things quiet and neighborhood-friendly.

But above this speed, a valve opens and the exhaust flows into a single resonator exiting the three-tip exhaust. (car accelerating) Shall we go? (car starting) (car accelerating) (laughs) Good job, Yamaha. Okay, let's finish the video. The LFA is comfortable and has individual seats with eight-way power adjustments. They're sporty and keep you locked in if you decide to take your Japanese supercar to the track. Seat belts have airbags that inflate during a crash and distribute the force of the impact over a wider portion of your chest. Had the LFA had an earlier release, these might have been more important, but in 2011, you can get a Ford Explorer with them.

I'm not trying to take anything away from the Ford Explorer, but I suppose Lexus would have liked to be the one to introduce such technology. The controls are simple but elegant. The instrument cluster is really cool. Because the engine can go from idle to redline in 0.6 seconds, they couldn't use analog technology, it wouldn't have been accurate, it couldn't keep up with the engine. So, they designed their own digital one. Again, if the LFA had been released a little earlier, it would have been the craziest (bleep) to hit the market. This technology alone was a big deal, but today, again, it seems to be commonplace.

The steering wheel itself is squared at the bottom. I guess Lexus was thinking about big guys like me, so it wouldn't knock my knees. The shift paddles do not move with the steering wheel. Some people like that, some don't, which is a nice segue into how people really feel about the whole LFA package. It's a mix of things. (upbeat music) When the LFA finally hit the market in 2012, more than a decade after its initial concept, the GTR, ZR1, Murciélago and many other stylish, fast cars had already been launched. Effectively stealing the attention Lexus hoped the LFA would bring to the company.

The GTR, in particular, really stole the show. It was a Japanese-made sports car that was five times cheaper and arguably a better performance car. In the end, the LFA's greatest ally ended up being its greatest enemy. Time. (sigh) wow! And because it took so long, there were some things Lexus couldn't back down on. Like transmission, for example. It's a six-speed single clutch. It really needs a double clutch. Stuff like that, along with the fact that Lexus didn't even let you buy one outright in the beginning, you could only lease it through Lexus. And even with only 500 made, dealers were not sold out.

It was weird. To make matters worse, the car wasn't even marketed very well. I mean, unless you're a car lover, you probably don't even remember the LFA, which totally defeats the purpose of a halo car. One thing the LFA did well, however, and like the LS before it, was change the way the brand built cars going forward. This is the car that started the stingray look that so many Lexuses have today. Look at the LC500. Clearly that car has LFA secret sauce all over it. Pretty soon, you'll start seeing production cars with carbon fiber frames, inflatable seat belts, and, fingers crossed, thousands of V10s rolling out of Japan.

And we will thank the LFA. And we'll thank our friend Brian for bringing his LFA to shoot with us today. Follow him on Instagram, @briangoldphd, follow us @donutmedia, follow @ovcmustangs. They welcomed us back into his sick garage. They're building some really interesting things. You can also check them out at ovcmustangs.com. I love you. (upbeat music)