Lexus Taking LFA to SEMA, Los Angeles Shows

Fresh from its unveiling at the Tokyo motor show today, Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. Inc. says the production version of the Lexus LFA supercar will make its U.S. debut on Lexus’ stand at the Specialty Equipment Market Assn. (SEMA) show in Las Vegas next month.

Lexus says it also will take the 2-seat LFA to December’s Los Angeles auto show.

The rear-wheel-drive LFA, which boasts a 4.8L V-10 engine making 552 hp and 354 lb.-ft. (480 Nm) of torque, will be available in limited numbers when it goes on sale in the U.S. in early 2011.

For two years from December 2010, just 20 LFAs per month will be built at Toyota’s Motomachi Plant in Toyota City, Japan. Only 500 total units of the car will be built, says Lexus’s Mark Templin, group vice president and general manager.

“The development of the LFA was unlike any other Lexus,” he says. “Minute details were engineered to provide an engaging and serious supercar that delivers impressive performance on and off the racetrack.

The LFA has a 9,000-rpm redline, top speed of 202 mph and what Lexus is calling a “unique 6-speed Automated Sequential Gearbox with blazing-quick paddle-activated shifts for ultimate driver control.”

Weight distribution for the LFA is 48:52 front-to-rear thanks to the placement of the ASG in a transaxle layout over the rear axle.

Only 500 units of Lexus’ first supercar to be built.

The LFA’s electrically assisted rack-and-pinion-steering system is dubbed “innovative” by Lexus, but no further details are provided.

Lexus utilizes lightweight materials in the LFA, including aluminum-alloy suspension parts and carbon fiber, reinforced with polymer, for its chassis and “much of its bodywork,” Lexus says.

The carbon-fiber process was not outsourced but developed internally to control quality and “make a sound engineering investment in the future.”

In May, Templin told Ward’s, even if Lexus decided not to bring the LFA to market, “we’ve learned a lot about performance that can be translated into our other vehicles.”

TMSUSA President Jim Lentz said in August he sees the ideal customer for the LFA, which reportedly will begin at $375,000 and has a 0-60-mph time of 3.7 seconds, as someone who already owns Lexus’ flagship LS sedan, as well as an Italian exotic.