Test Drive Lexus LFA 2010 - 2013 coupe

Test drive supercar Lexus LFA. Drug

In the dictionaries of medical terms, drugs have the following definition: Any item having an impact on the structure of the human body or any of its functions.

Lexus LFA is not a supercar, it's a drug.

Press the drip engine of the LEXUS flagship model of the flagship model and listen to V10 with rich racing past. In the same second, when this sound reaches your drummers, the adrenal glands will begin to produce epinephrine, provoking the production of endorphine pituitary. As a result of this natural process, heartbeat is raised, blood pressure increases, an involuntary reduction / relaxation of the muscles occurs and the overall sense of prosperity occurs becomes more sensitive, energy appears, energy appears. In other words, LFA leads its driver to a state of positive euphoria.

Unfortunately, as in the case of other drugs that improve the well-being, LFA is also addictive and addiction very quickly. But in Lexus they know about it, and therefore they took care of safety measures. First, allowed to manage the LFA should reach the age when officially you can get behind the wheel. Secondly, production is limited to only 500 copies (today in the US total 46). Thirdly, and it will rather save many of the poisoning with this dangerous toxin, the initial cost of this hallucinogen from carbon, aluminum and titanium is $ 375,000.

So it is hardly in the near future any of your friends, neighbors or colleagues will get an overdose of LFA.

Recently, Lexus provided me with the opportunity to try out this dangerous supercar during a couple of days. It's not complaining to me that, because even our chief editor Damon Lavrins managed to spend behind the wheel of the LFA much less than the time he tested him on speedback Homestead-Miami two years ago as part of the launch of the model in production. The LFA review without a specially developed plan seemed wrong, and therefore a scheme was created, within which the car had to drive through luxurious coastal highways, winding mountain slopes and a wide deserted highway without a single turn, all in one day. This is a test drive! I am extremely lucky with the landscapes of Southern California, and with the weather.

According to the plan, a scrupulously developed during several evenings preceded by the arrival of LFA, the car had to do a certain gigantic geographic loop. To get a maximum experience from managing this miracle of the car industry, the route was included above the coastal, mountain and deserted tracks with a drop of heights up to 2,700 meters above sea level. The temperature regime is also extremal, with a minimum of 15 oC in the coastal strip and 37 oC stroke heat in the desert. The trip should have started at noon, I had to overcome about 700 km during the day and night, as well as organize a spectacular photo session at sunset.

The morning on the day of the trip welcomed me with a clean sky. On the driveway stood slightly sipped road dust of Lexus LFA (honestly, the black color is not the most successful for the car, because each dust is visible on it, and at the same time it hides almost all the unique stylistic solutions to any model). It turned out that this supercar actually looks massive and brutal than in photographs, although in length it is comparable to Porsche 911 and Chevrolet Corvette, but below and wider than both competitor.

At the time of the development of LFA, Toyota had an obsession of weight loss, so engineers who worked on LFA had to develop special aluminum structures instead of traditional steel. Nevertheless, the calculations have shown that this is not enough to achieve the goals, and then they turned to a light, like a feather, but extremely durable carbon fiber. The material is very expensive and difficult to process, but in Toyota decided to rely on your 150 years experience in the manufacture of textile products and developed a special way to work with this fiber, as well as the newest technology for the formation of high-strength parts from plastic enhanced by carbon fiber (CFRP). In its pure form, there are titanium, aluminum and some other alloys. So the rumors are true: there are no steel in Lexus LFA.

Since photographing was scheduled at the end of the day, then the priority was cleaning LFA. LFA washing manually gave me an excellent opportunity to get acquainted with carbon body parts and explore numerous recesses and air ducts (they are in the LEXUS body such that the head of the Swiss cheese would be acquired). Nevertheless, all of them are extremely functional: the slides in the nose supply fresh air into the engine compartment and cooled the front brakes, and the air ducts on the hood are excessively heat from the engine and fill the cool air to titanium outputs. Additional slots in the sides are fed to the rear brakes located behind radiators and titanium silencers.

Under the carbon hood with a special carbon backup, a 4.8-liter atmospheric V10 is located. Due to the small mass, obtained by using titanium valves and connecting rods, this motor is spinning up to 9,000 revolutions, although the fuel cut-off is installed on a dizzying mark of 9,500 revolutions per minute. The engine, which, according to Toyota, is less than the traditional V8 and easier than the usual V6, received an individual throttle for each cylinder. It is equipped with a dry crankcase lubrication system with high-speed passes of protracted turns, while its power is 560 hp. 8,700 revolutions per minute and 480 nm at 6,800 rpm. At this Toyota did not stop, continuing to surprise us: LFA received the equiardial titanium exhaust manifold and a superbly tuned titanium silencer. The sound, published by the top of the exhaust pipes, mounted in the center of the rear bumper, like the Formula 1 car, is a shinger how you will not hear outside the racing track.

Electronics responds for switching the speeds, the signals are sent to the outside of the automatic sequented gearbox with one-piece clutch. Two-disc clutch for LFA did not work out, they say Toyota engineers, since easily spinning V10 can reach the cutoff just six tenths. This dictates the relevant transmission requirements: low mass and one-piece clutch, capable of digesting high speeds, as well as compatibility with a digital tachometer, since an analog device simply would not cope with such speeds and lightning shifts.

Borrowed from racing cars, LFA suspension is responsible for ensuring the contact of the wheels with the road. It is not particularly difficult, there are no electronics, which follows the level of stiffness of shock absorbers or springs, although it has aluminum single-tube shock absorbers with a remote tank, empty transverse stability stabilizers, forged aluminum fists and forged levers. The brakes are built on massive ventilated carbon-ceramic brake discs with high-piston calipers in front and four-position rear. Complete all this chain Tires Bridgestone Size 265 / 35ZR20 in front and 305/30ZR20 from behind.

Birding with obsession, the desire to reduce the weight of the car in combination with the central engine building led to the almost perfect weight distribution along the axes 48:52 and the total weight of 1480 kg (this is 256 kg less than the Nissan GT-R weighs with its heavy nose). Lexus argues that LFA will be able to accelerate up to 96 km / h in 3.6 seconds, and its maximum speed will be 325 km / h.

Reaching the LFA salon, I discovered that he was as fantastic as the exterior, but I would not risk it ergonomically to call it (my height is 187 cm). The first thing you notice is the stunning abundance of carbon in combination with aluminum, leather and suede, which is covered by almost every centimeter of the surface of the salon. But there are some oddities. Among them is the lack of cup holders, niches for storing the smallest and cruise control system. It seems that LFA seems to hints at the impossibility of presence in the cabin anyone else, except for the driver, even before the engine is running.

The inexperienced driver behind the wheel of the LFA will have to be very difficult, and an experienced pre-flight instruction is positively needed. To start the engine, you need to insert the key to the ignition lock and turn it out (in order to initialize the power supply to the system), while you need to click on the brake pedal, and the box should be on a neutral at the same time pull both stealing petals at the same time. At this stage there should be a small light bulb on the steering wheel, located just under the carboxyle button Engine Start. Press and hold this button until you hear that the motor has earned. The first gear is turned on by a single-click right-hand drive switch. To select a reverse, you need to select a neutral speed again and then lower a small lever on the side of the toolbar. The parking brake is equipped with an electronically activated using a switch in the director's right knee area. This preliminary briefing sounds quite confused, but you get used to all these tricks quickly.

My first task was to enter the selected route to the memory of the absolutely unpretentious navigation system (standard LEXUS system). Having understood with navigation, I was puzzled in order to fill the passenger seat.

Things were blunting. Then I did the way any responsible father did in my place, I drove up at LFA directly to the school of my son, went to class where he was sitting at the next lesson, and took it until the end of the day. Despite the fact that he is only in the seventh grade, and he is 12 years old, he is an unsurpassed expert at Forza Motorsport, who knows about LFA more than any of the sellers of Lexus Showerma. (Plus, my parentful flair suggested that this experience of communicating with his father will give him much more than a history lesson, sociology and introduction to the algebra that stood in his schedule on that day.)

Father, son and LFA left school parking and headed north to highway 101.

Overbabbing the LFA to cruising speed requires approximately the same effort how to drop the stone to the shoe, however, the admiration and ended. I did not want to break someone's dreams, but the supercaster control in a dense stream of cars at a speed of 105 km / h leads out of itself no less than polite communication with a girlfriend's mom at a party after graduation.

Everything became even worse when it turned out that the LFA suspension detects any error on the surface of the road, be it a pit, a small ditch or the butt of LEXUS concrete slabs arranged to us such a shake, as if we tried to settle the wild Mustang. After leaving the city of Ventura and heading deep into the mainland, we even laughed a little when on one of the kerks was raised from suede chairs. At first it was funny, then it became not to laughter.

Adhering to permitted in all intersected states of speed, we soon realized that the constant upwardness of the motor also starts annoying over time, since the speed allowed on the highway implies the engine operation on turns over 3,000 per minute. Naked LFA drowshes everything in the three band range around itself, the patience of others also dries up quickly. Therefore, two participants in the road had to seek to seek a less busy road.

The transmission has four modes of operation (automatic, ordinary, sports and to drive through the snow). On the highway, I used terribly boring and slow automatic mode, but as soon as we reached the city, California, 33 Highways (SA-33), I transferred the box to the sports mode and began to switch the velocity by manually by stealing petals. Having entered the city of artists and artists, where the most popular vehicle is an eco-friendly prius, I twisted the motor up to 4000 revolutions, just to estimate the effect. The trio of exhaust pipes rocked loudly, not only isolating Lexus from the surrounding reality, but also proudly aware of all about their presence within a radius at least 100 meters. They mean about the arrival of the exotic, as in the Middle Ages, the sounds of the horns were arranged about the arrival of the king. We have fun from the soul, looking like passersby on sidewalks stopped and stolen to us.

After finishing the trust of the rush, we were refueling with high-octane gasoline and continued our journey to the north on the SA-33 highway to the mountains of Santa Ains. After 15 minutes, our car was the only one on a two-band winding mountain road.

Have you ever watched the dog behaves, just lowered from the leash? Imagine that very second when the animal understands that he is no longer held anymore, and immediately worn in the distance, as if he was at liberty for the first time. In Lexus, apparently, the dog DNA molecule is hidden, because he felt free.

Then I did not understand this, but I swallowed the LFA tablet.

It was a temptation to drive to an outstanding car for an equally impressive road, I took advantage of the opportunity to go through all available transmissions. By selecting the Sport mode for the box (in which she stayed until the end of the day), I smoothly changed the transfer of petals to hold the motor in the optimal speed range, while LFA danced like prima-ballerina.

Incredibly balanced, LFA demonstrates extraordinary ability to keep the specified trajectory on indescribably high speed. It unquestioned the steering wheel, demonstrating smooth and accurate movements. In the middle of the turn, he can easily spin if the driver incorrectly doses the effort attached to the accelerator pedal, but just as easily the LFA can be caught by turning the steering wheel towards driving. No worship or manners, he kept the strip, as if she was rolling along with steel wheels laid for him.

The responsiveness of aluminum pedals, the driver involvement in the gas management process and brakes are also impressive. I can swear that the engine could not respond to work a gas pedal faster, open all ten small throttle dampers manually. Massive, not knowing fatigue brakes, only a small movement is necessary to develop tons of braking effort. Confidence is a denial.

LFA control hypnotizes.

After 40 minutes of the purest driver's pleasure, I forced myself to stop. It was necessary to translate the breath, unzipped the three-point security belts tightly, equipped with a pillow, and go a little around this flagship ship. For your career in the field of automotive journalism, I sat behind the wheel of many sports cars, but only a few of them managed to impress me as Lexus LFA. A wide smile was shining on my face, it seems, I let droach, and I wanted to quickly return to the LFA steering wheel.

Soon the road was leveled, arid mountains gave way to green farmhouses. Ideally, direct kilometer runs allowed me to turn the engine in full, holding the turnover in the red zone at a mark of 9,000 and forcing it to sound, like the Formulas of the Bolids 1. And here I noticed how a flock of black ravens, who got sideways on a plowed field, rose In the air, having walked the terrible roar of the rapidly approaching black coupe. I looked around.

After a short walk to the northeast along the SA-166 highway, we turned on the Sierrow Norestite's track, or the Forest Highway 95, which goes on the loaded highway No. 5. This is one of the best trails in the country from the driver's point of view, there are many turning ligaments here and Excellent visibility. In winter, snow ruins often happen here, because of which the track is closed, but in the summer, in sunny weather, here is amazingly beautiful. V10 piercedly peered, sucking the poor oxygen mountain air at an altitude of 1,800 meters above sea level. Despite its aggressiveness, the arrows of digital temperature sensors of the coolant and oils did not move on a pixel (merit of aggressive driving along the dry Carter LFA, which allows you to withstand loads in turns up to 2G, and two large radiators with electric fans, cooling vital fluids) .

A small hook to a species platform located on the top of Mount Pinos (2 696 m), gave us the last chance to admire these picturesque pines before the first snow falls. And I had a chance to check the LFA reflexes. LEXUS clearance is only 11.5 cm, even less than Corvette Zr1. This means that large pine branches, stones and even semi-shifted proteins are potential obstacles to LFA. But it is not necessary to worry, since the gear ratios of the electronic steering and only 2.3 turnover of the steering from the stop until the stop allows you to easily compensate for some physical shortcomings.

Going away from the mountain, we drove to Flying J Travel Plaza to have a snack before continuing your journey through the next refueling station, of course.

On the California State Route 138 highway, we proceeded from Gorman to the north of Lancaster, located in the Alpine Mojave Desert. The road took only one and a half hours. There is a 35-kilometer segment of perfectly straight road, leaving right into the horizon, besides we were lucky few cars, and we took advantage. LFA seemed to be rejoiced to the opportunity to rush with the breeze. Despite the fact that the temperature overboard was chosen to 40 degrees, from the deflectors we were blown in with ice air.

Having enjoyed the sports regime and manual shifting speeds (I used to be used very quickly), I also realized what pleasure can be obtained from overtaking slow tractors and other cargo equipment thanks to the easy-to-lift V10. As it should be expected from the atmospheric engine, it needs to be accelerated a little before he can give the necessary thrust. The rapid overtaking is best obtained after two clicks with the left switch, which transfers the box for the fourth speed. If everything is done correctly, the slow feet disappears in the dust cloud in a couple of seconds. Stability at high speeds for the machine, the maximum speed of which exceeds 300 km / h, is quite praise.

In the auto industry in Lancaster, we had to meet with Drew Phillips, an honorary photographer edition Autoblog, but came a little earlier than the designated time. The appearance of a loud black LFA distracted several visitors from the absorption of burgers, and they immediately gathered around the car, began to ask questions. The front of the car, stuck in the corpses of various insects, we encountered along the way at a huge speed, was a nightmare nightmare. Before photographed LFA, I had to solve the issue with its car wash. And Drew also grabbed with her a set for detailed shooting.

After a couple of hours of photography on the deserted highway, the magnificent orange sunset sky was replaced by twilight blue. We went back to Palmdale, again at refueling (it turned out that with my ride style, the flow rate was about 23 liters per 100 km). Then we had 160 km of the shuttle highway. It pleased that in this way we will open 6 very complex in terms of the movement of areas in the suburb of Los Angeles. Late came home late, the son immediately fell asleep, barely coming to bed. I returned to the garage, got into a warm LFA to reflect on its existence.

There is a lot of ways to rationalize Lexus LFA. This is undoubtedly a delightful car, although it is too rare and expensive to take any significant place in the real world of ordinary roads. It is also an indisputable proof of high engineering competence Toyota Motor Corporation is both filigree work with composite materials, and building a lightweight platform, and a brilliant engine. In the end, this is an amazing supercar, let him have to prove it to everyone from the numerous rivals.

Driving on this exotic more than 800 km, I can subscribe to all three achievements of Lexus, as well as I want to add fourth from myself.

Unlike other models, implementations of concepts and supercars, Lexus LFA does not compromise. This is an unambiguous driver for the driver, absolutely self-sufficient in the selected niche. With the exception of not the most successful navigation system, each carbon tube, suede leather and titanium alloy is aimed at achieving this single target. This is a single stimulator created to put the driver into the state of the euphoria. Execution flawless. This is not a supercar, it's a drug.


The main characteristics of Lexus LFA:
Engine: 4.8 liters V10
Power: 560 hp / 480 nm
Transmission: 6 Step Sequental
Acceleration from 0 to 60 mph (96 km / h): 3.6 seconds
Maximum speed: 325 km / h
Drive Type: Rear
Mass: 1 480 kg
Number of seats: 2
Fuel consumption: 21 l / 100 km in city, 14 l / 100 km on the highway
Cost in USA: $ 375 000


Posted by: Michael Harley
Photographer: Drew Phillips

A source: Autoblog.com.