Stories out of Japan say {that a} successor to the Lexus LFA is within the works. Whereas this information ought to include a planet-sized grain of salt, there’s a non-zero likelihood. And for the reason that LFA is likely one of the best sports cars we’ve driven, it bears not less than contemplating, so let us take a look at the mere chance of a successor.
Best Car magazine claims to have of their upcoming Dec. 10 challenge a scoop concerning the new “tremendous sports” car. They are saying that the successor is a plug-in hybrid with a front-midship structure (the heavy motor behind the entrance axle) beneath a carbon fiber physique. The gasoline facet of the equation is claimed to be a twin-turbo 4.0-liter V8 producing roughly 937 horsepower. It is supposedly scheduled for a 2025 debut.
This appears to be a unique automotive than the rumored Gazoo Racing Super Sport, which relies on the Toyota’s entrant within the WEC’s new Le Mans Hypercar class. That automotive must resemble the race automotive considerably, and as such would have a twin-turbo hybrid V6.
We discover it extremely unlikely that Toyota would construct two super-expensive vehicles on the identical time. Additionally, notice the rumored engine is a 4.0-liter V8, a displacement that does not exist in any fashionable Lexus. Maybe that might imply a substitute for the present 5.0-liter V8? Or possibly only a signal that that is all a lot ado about nothing.
Nevertheless, we have now seen an LFA prototype with modified bodywork lapping the Nürburgring in late 2018, some six years after the unique ended manufacturing. The identical automotive was noticed in summer of 2019 as well, the identical yr Lexus’ then vice-president, now president Koji Sato instructed Autocar, “We’d like robust requests for a brand new LFA from the media. This might help us proceed.”
Nicely, if that is what it takes then think about this one other vote within the sure column, regardless that we have described its 4.8-liter V10’s 552-horsepower output as not very spectacular on paper by the point it got here out and lined the way it wasn’t a scorching vendor, with new examples nonetheless being offered for sale as new in 2018.
Within the years since, although, it appears the collector market appears to have taken a liking to the LFA. At Monterey Automobile Week this yr, an everyday LFA sold for $819,000, greater than doubling its unique $375,000 sticker, whereas a 1 of fifty Nürburgring Version sold for $1.6 million. If the GR Tremendous Sport actually is canceled as some rumors suggest, maybe there’s room within the Toyota household for one more LFA.
We nonetheless would not maintain our breaths, although.
