Lexus LFA

Text: Jack Rix / Photos: Nathan Morgan

March 2010

The Lexus LFA has hit the UK – and Auto Express has been given the opportunity to drive it! Ordinarily, the chance to try one of the world’s fastest cars flat-out would have us grinning from ear to ear. So why are there butterflies in the pit of our stomach?

Thanks to a last-minute invite, we find ourselves queuing to take a run up the Goodwood course in West Sussex – the most famous hillclimb in motorsport. It’s not just any vehicle we are sitting in, either: our drive at the Festival of Speed press day is the incredible new Lexus supercar’s first appearance in action on UK soil.

If that’s not enough to get your palms sweating, then consider this: the white model we’re being entrusted with is the only LFA in Europe, and one of just four in the world. No pressure then…

WATCH FOOTAGE OF OUR RUN IN THE LFA AT GOODWOOD HERE

It’s clear we’re part of something special the moment our ‘batch’ of competing vehicles is called to queue up on the start line. To our right is an ex-Le Mans McLaren F1, in front is an Alfa 8C Spider and stretching into the distance is a vast array of road and race machines from every era. It has to be the most expensive traffic jam in the world.

My passenger on the hill is Richard Seymour, one of Lexus’ technical experts and the LFA’s minder for the day. We take the opportunity to set up the car for our full-bore run. Via a rotating knob next to the instrument panel, we select ‘Sport’ – and the tachometer immediately glows white. We switch the automated manual gearbox from self-shift mode to manual, to get full control of the ratios. Finally, we crank the change speed up to its fastest setting – so the car can swap cogs in only two-tenths of a second.

Our finger hovers over the button marked ‘TC off’, but with 552bhp being sent to a cold set of rear tyres and the world’s press watching closely, we decide to leave it well alone! Yet as we crawl closer to the start line there’s a problem.

Both driver and passenger are required to wear crash helmets, and there’s only one to share. Seymour leaps out and sprints to the start line to try to locate a spare. A few minutes later, he knocks on the window: “I can’t find one, you’ll have to do it on your own,” he mouths through the glass. We give him the thumbs-up and roll towards the marshal in his orange boiler suit. He drops his arms and we plant the throttle.

The needle immediately bounces off the 9,500rpm limiter and the engine screams for second gear. Moments later it wants third and we’re already carrying some serious speed. The acceleration is startling and the high-pitched wail of the 4.8-litre V10 rings in our ears. Approaching the first corner, we stamp on the carbon ceramic brakes and turn the light but precise steering wheel.

Mid-corner balance is superb and the level of grip extraordinary – there isn’t a flicker from the traction control in the first bend. On the exit we pick up the throttle as early as we dare and blast along the straight past Goodwood House.

A speed limit of 40mph has been imposed from Molcome Corner, halfway up the 1.16-mile track, to the holding paddock at the top. But with only a handful of marshals on look-out duty, it’s impossible to resist keeping up the pace all the way to the crest. Nick Heidfeld is the current holder of the Goodwood Hillclimb record, with a 41.6-second time in 1999 in his McLaren F1 car. Although we don’t threaten his crown, our drive in the LFA is a physical experience that won’t be forgotten.

The space-age styling has taken some criticism since the model was first revealed, but get up close and explore it in detail, and the low-slung, muscular proportions have immense presence. Even parked up next to an orange Lamborghini Murciélago SV, it doesn’t seem lacking in drama. At Goodwood it turns more heads than virtually anything else on display.

But the real surprise is the brutality of the driving experience. Change gear on full throttle and you can feel the cogs moving with such force, it sends shockwaves through the chassis. Lexus says it chose an automated manual box over a twin-clutch unit for exactly that reason – to give the car its raw personality.

It’s the engine that’s the star, though; it revs like nothing else on the road. In fact, Lexus claims the digital tacho is a necessity, not simply a gimmick – a real needle couldn’t keep up with the rate at which the motor piles on the revs.

Blip the throttle in neutral and the virtual needle will race to the 9,500rpm limiter in less than a second. So, the big question: is this car worth £350,000? When you consider that Audi’s sublime R8 V10 has nearly the same power, arguably offers a more polished driving experience and costs around £250,000 less, the answer has to be no. But that’s concentrating on the raw numbers.

It’s refreshing to see a marque as straight-laced as Lexus turning its hand to such a raw and edgy product – proving that car makers aren’t always as predictable as we might think. There’s a sense of drama and mystery which follows the LFA around, too, while the likes of the Audi R8 and Lamborghini Gallardo have become a relatively common sight on UK roads.

Brand snobs and number crunchers might have already chalked up the LFA as an irrelevance, but we can’t think of a better car for an unforgettable blast up the Goodwood Hillclimb.

Rival: Ferrari 599 GTB
The 599 is hardly cheap, yet next to the LFA the £200,000 front-engined Italian GT begins to look like a bargain. It outguns the Lexus with 612bhp from its 6.0-litre V12, but hits 0-62mph in an identical 3.7 seconds.