AcctCanc01

I got a rare opportunity to drive a new LFA and for those that may doubt the validity, I have video to upload. If any of you would like my objective opinion on the pros and cons of this car, let me know and I can report. Again video to follow tomorrow.

Edward'TLS

This thread belongs more to the "Car Talk" sub-forum than the 4G TL forum.

jangkai

No doubts here but please do tell us how it went.

justnspace

iTrader: (1)

WHY the heck would you tell us about it, but then not go into specifics.
Thats like your girlfriend/wife taking off your pants, but then stops because she has a headache.

DUH, we want your freaking opinion on the car.

BEAR-AvHistory

Your thoughts & vid would be of great interest to a lot of people.

gibbyisgibby

potmilkz

video or it never happened!

rockstar143

iTrader: (6)

I don't want to know how you felt about it, but wouldn't mind seeing a video of it.
The reviews are too subjective...plus, if I wanted to know what it felt like to bang Kim K, I wouldn't ask Ray J, I'd rent the DVD.

AcctCanc01

[flash=http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=109786]width="400" height="267" flashvars="intl_lang=en-us&photo_secret=9cf86c53ee&photo_id=7489034518" bgcolor="#000000" allowFullScreen="true"[/flash]


[flash=http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=109786]width="400" height="267" flashvars="intl_lang=en-us&photo_secret=a3c58e3353&photo_id=7488970278" bgcolor="#000000" allowFullScreen="true"[/flash]





June 14 2012 127 by Abcdecanc#1, on Flickr


June 14 2012 131 by Abcdecanc#1, on Flickr


June 14 2012 129 by Abcdecanc#1, on Flickr


June 14 2012 125 by Abcdecanc#1, on Flickr

So my first impression was actually negative. I am not a big guy 5'11" 225lbs, but the seat was very tight on my ass. Also getting my legs into the proper driver position was not easy, and I had the seat back as far as it would go. The sound system is unbelievable and would be on par with the best anyone has ever listened to even in the aftermarket space. Visibility is perfect in all directions even with the rear spoiler in the up position. You actually look under the spoiler when looking into the rear view mirror. There are controls that are hidden from view that you would need so you have to know where they are to use them. Also you can't just get in and turn on the engine. You need to have your foot on the brake, turn the key to the on position, pull back on the shift paddles to put it in neutral, turn off the emergency brake, then hit the start button. The E-Brake is hidden under your right knee so you need to know where it is or you will never find it from the driver position.

The steering wheel is just the right size and weighted very nicely. Even though the steering is electric, the feel is amazing. You can easily place the car in a corner and know exactly where you are on the road. Very comforting considering the speed you can achieve in seconds. There are some corners that in an average car would be near the limit at 40 mph, this car you could take it at more than 80 mph or more I think.

The gear shifting is adjustable so you can shift quickly or instantaneously. The mechanical sounds in the car are strange at first but when you understand that there is NO sound deadening between you and the transmission, torque tunnel, drive shaft and the rear axle, the sounds are amazing. We all miss this in every other car as it would be silent in any other car.

The suspension is very stiff. This is a very thinly disguised race car. Traction is astonishing. I never lost traction with one exception. The traction control light came on every time I shifted until I hit 4th gear at 104 mph. When you see me heading down the entrance ramp under full power, listen carefully and you might hear the tire slip on the gear shifts. When I merged into traffic I was coasting at 95 mph and was gently giving the throttle in 4th and 5th gear in the 90-115 mph range. It does not look like it, but that was what I was doing at the time. The speed potential is ridiculous.

One thing that happened was there was a dude in a STI trying to keep up and take video with his I-Phone and tried to egg me on to stab the gas. I did it a few times and just left him in the dust. The look on his face was .

Now as cool as this was, the best part of this car is the sound. It sounded like about 100db at full song, and I am told it is even louder than that outside. I am told that the loudest of sport bikes are tame compared to this. I believe it.

The dash is all electronic because the engine revs so fast with the 10 individual throttle bodies that it take about 1/2 a second to rev from neutral to 9300 rpm. The dash is fully customizable and you can adjust just about everything.

There is so much more to comment on, but honestly the sound inside and outside is a tie for the overall sensation of speed and control you have with this car.

Getting out of it is a little odd as you have to be a contortionist. If I was 50 lbs less and 4 inches shorter it would have been perfect. I guess not being Japanese is my downfall.

I have other video to share but I can't upload it to Flicker until next month as there is a limit of 2 per month? If this thread is still going as of August 1st I will upload them at that time. Sorry guys.

By the way the pictures of the car were taken by me at an event in Greenwich CT in mid June. They had some really cool cars there.

AcctCanc01

http://www.flickr.com/photos/66802449@N08/7489034518/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/66802449@N08/7488970278/

icy2

Car sounds amazing!! Thanks for the video!

ThermonMermon

Nice!! Will give another hard look when I go into the local dealership this Saturday. They have a black one on display.

pttl

Wow! Supercars...awesome. Thanks for sharing!

p.diddy

iTrader: (3)

wow for a $375,000 car im really not liking that interior. i feel like it could look so much better.

rockstar143

iTrader: (6)

Ok, I lied, I read your entire review like a novel and appreciate you posting this. Awesome awesome experience, it sounds like.

justnspace

iTrader: (1)

i laughed when you said you werent a big guy.


nice review, will watch vids later.

06cmv6

^^me too...im a hair under 6' and 175lbs on a day eating like sh*t and drinking 2 mountain dew....lmao

as for the car is looks and sounds badass but i would never pay that much for that car....give me a techart porsche 997 twin turbo

oo7spy

Not very often you see a Corolla leading an LFA.

rockstar143

iTrader: (6)

I'm 6'1" and 220 lbs...I don't feel like a big guy either...

AcctCanc01

You are not kidding. The second part of that video (which I can't seem to load right now because of Flicker limitations) is my crossing that intersection and goosing the gas in 3rd gear to about 6500 rpm at about 75% throttle (equivalent to my TL gunning it at a traffic light from a stop) and then caught up by some Jap Nissan Cube thing. When the road straightens out he passes a dump truck and I am waiting for him to move over so I can pass him at full tilt in 3rd gear. He moved over and I hit it flashing to 115 in a few seconds. How anyone keeps that car under 80 is beyond me.

Acuraluvr

iTrader: (2)

I actually love how the interior looks. I think the navi screen, etc could be a lot nicer though - like the huge one in the GS now. But maybe it's to save weight

AcctCanc01

Don't get me wrong. The car is very cool, but part of that price is exclusivity. There are only 178 in the US. It is a very exclusive group of people. They are part of the .00000000001%.

AcctCanc01

weight, ridigity and technology.

RPhilMan1

Thanks for sharing. That sound is unbelievable.

Why not upload to YouTube instead of Flickr?

Rockstar21

iTrader: (1)

yea, flickr never works for me, it always is distorted or green.

CLassy02

It's ok J, you're just a lil guy!

Thanks for posting! That thing sounds SO sick. I have yet to see one in person though I love in the second video though, you get on it then say "That is just fuckin ridiculous." Awesome. I'm surprised no one has asked this, why were you able to drive it? I'm sure Lexus doesn't just say, "hey, wanna drive an LFA?"

Pete2010

Was this thru the Montecello Motor Club? Did you end up joining?

ThermonMermon

whats with the comments/criticism on the sticker price, or questioning what you can pay for it?

You cant buy an LFA! No one can...its lease only. Pricing is irrelevant.

AcctCanc01

I have had a very good year and am considering buying one. No you can't just walk in off the street and take a test drive. Before someone thinks I'm kidding, this is not a joke or a prank. I looked at the new Mclaren MP4-12C and had concerns about the reliability so that is out. I drove the 2012 TT911 and really did not like it. I can expound on that if anyone is interested. I took the video to show my wife and we are considering it right now. As stupid as this may sound, I am also interested in a completely different breed of sports car too. I have always been a fan of Carroll Shelby after meeting him many years ago (RIP), and had a chance to get a ride (not drive) in a true Cobra. That was just sick. Since then I have been waiting for the new GT500 to arrive and considering the massive cost difference, I am truly thinking that may be the better choice. Is the LFA more refined in every way? Yes. Is the LFA more exclusive? Yes. HOWEVER.... I will be terrified to take it anywhere. It will be next to impossible to get it over a speed bump in a paring lot. I would never valet it. I would be afraid to park it anywhere, even in sight. Now the GT500 is none of those things. Because it is so inexpensive relative to the LFA and likely almost as fast, I could wreck it many times over and still not add up to one LFA. Also to repair an LFA would be catastrophic as there is so much carbon fiber in the manufacturing of the car. To insure LFA is very expensive when compared to a GT500.

AcctCanc01

No it was not. I have not joined yet although negotiations are basically complete. We still have to go through the approval process with the board, but joining without a car to drive did not make sense. When I say "we" it is our firm that is considering that membership as this is a corporate/personal membership.

AcctCanc01

I beg to differ. It requires a $60,000 deposit to get one of the last 4 cars allotted for the US into production. If I decide to take this last one, which I will be deciding on in the next couple of days, this will NOT be a lease. In fact this was never discussed as an option nor would a buyer of one of these cars want that. This is an iconic car for Lexus, not a profit center. Actually Lexus is loosing money on each one they produce based on the very high manufacturing costs. Portions of the technology in the car will eventually spin down the product chain in different areas. If anything Lexus is looking at the production run as a large scale test mule of extreme technology where the buyers are effectively repaying the company for their R&D.

AcctCanc01

Regarding your comment, the leather and manufacturing is exquisite. Things that look like aluminum ARE aluminum (no fake stuff here). The doors are exposed carbon fiber, not fake tape on top of plastic. The dash and controls are first rate in every way. You would be hard pressed to find better quality in any other luxury sports car, or any car for that matter. The biggest issue I have is the livability factor based on the way my but fits in the seat. Also because it is so exclusive, I do worry that some moron in a Civic (sorry if I am insulting someone) will try to keep up with me and crash into me as they are trying to manage taking video of the car while negotiating traffic and shoving a donut in their face at the same time (bad attempt at humor).

Oh and by the way, $375,000 is the starting point. You customize "up" from there. Little changes can add up quickly. Picking the 4 leather colors and stitching, head liner, steering wheel, door inserts, brake caliper color and paint scheme is only part of the process.

CLassy02

I agree with this, however, you see Shelby's all the time. While they are still really cool, it's not as stunning to see a Shelby as it would be to see an LFA, and at the end of the day it's still just a Mustang. As far as driveability goes, I wouldn't worry about speedbumps, it would clear them, you just have to adjust your driving style to accommodate for a much lower riding vehicle. I have a lot of friends whose cars look like they cannot go anywhere because of the slammed ride height, but they can get into almost every parking lot, get over most speedbumps, etc etc with an adjusted angle and going real slow. Plus no one will complain when it's an LFA being cautious as opposed to a Civic. Either one would be an awesome car to own, but I think the LFA would be much more enjoyable due to the "wow" factor you would get. A friend drives a Lotus Elise and people stop him everywhere he goes to admire it, just imagine the looks you will get with an LFA! Plus, that V10 roar is downright amazing. That would never get old.

AcctCanc01

You are right that the "wow" effect is there. You are right that the GT500 is far more pedestrian. Yes that roar is intoxicating and quite frankly better sounding than the 1000 watt Mark Levinson stereo is has. BUT, and this is a big BUTT, the seat is so narrow that my ass was sore after driving it for an hour. I keep coming back to this as it is the biggest drawback. I guess it could be motivation to loose a few pounds, but I can't do anything about the width of my hip bones no matter how much I weigh. The seat belt clip was digging into my right hip the whole time I was driving it. When I made left hand turns, I only leaned harder into my right hip in the seat. I'm no fatty for sure, but if I was a smaller guy, this would be a done deal.

CLassy02

Hmm, yeah being totally uncomfortable while driving would be a pain in the ass, and I could see how that would take away from driving the car if all you could think about was the seatbelt digging into your side.

AcctCanc01

I'm not trying to be stupid and whine. But if I'm being distracted by my ass, I would not drive the car as often as I would like. Here is another thing. There is no chance I would take the car to be serviced anywhere other than a Lexus dealership as they have specific technicians and tools for these cars. You don't just go to a Jiffy Lube to change the oil. With the GT500, anyone can service what needs to be done with those cars. I know I am harping on the practicality side of things, but I'm not 20 years old. If I am looking at things from the cool factor, this has it hands down. However, I could buy a GT500, hammer it and destroy it, buy another one and still have left over funds to send one of my kids to college with what I would spend on the LFA.

speedemon90

you should just get a 458

CLassy02

I totally understand your point. Do it! Like I said the Shelby is still an incredible car! You said you are looking at the brand new one, correct?

justnspace

iTrader: (1)

he's contemplating about dropping $300,000+ on an LFA.

what do you think?

CLassy02

Some people just do not like the newer body styling of the Mustangs. I do not want to assume that he is getting a new one just because of his budget. I went back through the posts and I see he is looking at a new one.