The glorious Lexus LFA supercar, which had only 500 units built and went out of production in 2012, may have a successor at long last.
We say “may” because Toyota has not issued confirmation on the subject.
However, a heavily camouflaged Toyota sports car prototype has been seen testing in Europe over the past year. At Nürburgring Nordschleife, to be precise. This, according to a report from Car and Driver, suggests the development mule could become an LFA successor if it’s greenlit for production.
The back story here is this test vehicle – there are two according to Car and Driver – is alleged to be the production version of a GR GT3 race car concept Toyota revealed at the 2022 Tokyo Auto Salon. According to the magazine, Toyota’s in-house motorsports arm, Gazoo Racing, is leading development. The production car, should it come to pass, could be badged as a Lexus, perhaps as LFR, the story notes.
Spy photos taken at the Nürburgring – sorry, we don’t have the rights to publish those shots here but we've included some GT3 concept and first-gen LFA pics – suggest Toyota was testing different fixed rear wing setups.
Car and Driver speculates the car has a hybrid V8 engine but, again, Toyota isn’t commenting. The spy photographer claimed the test mules in Germany had yellow stickers on them, which denotes electrification, and they also said the car started off silently before an engine fired up after a short distance. Sounds like a hybrid powertrain to us.
Spy photos also show an interior that has carbon fiber trim in the door panels and dash cowl, although it’s hard to see much under a pile of testing equipment. An automatic transmission gear selector is visible on the center console, if you look closely, however.
Close-up shots of the body work reveal some interesting air flow and cooling management bits, including a hood air extractor, and air intakes in the rear quarter panels. Large openings in the front fenders appear to be vents for brake cooling. Apart from that, there’s not much else that can be gleaned in terms of design. Then again, that’s why these cars wear so much camouflage in the first place.
One other note worth mentioning comes from a TRD (Toyota Racing Development) executive Car and Driver interviewed, and it concerns racing. TRD, for those unaware, is Toyota’s U.S.-based tuning and high-performance division.
That executive, David Wilson, president of TRD, suggests Toyota wants a new car for racing in the global GT3 class, a division where many Toyota / Lexus rivals compete. Wilson said, the current Lexus race car, the RC F GT3, which competes in IMSA and is based on the RC road car, wasn’t developed from the ground up to compete in racing.
Without confirming the LFR, he said it’s vital for any road car that also competes in racing, such as GT3, to be designed and engineered for that purpose from the beginning. Not as an add-on after the production car is already on sale.
So read into that what you will. We’ll also note that the current gen RC coupe is scheduled to go out of production at the end of the 2025 model year. Could a hypothetical LFR replace the RC, and the LC, which could be nearing the end of its run, too? More info on the latter can be found here.
We could know what Toyota's plans are, and soon. The Japan Mobility Show, the odd-year motor show that matters most to Japanese OEMs is scheduled for late October. We won’t be surprised if Toyota has news to share then.
Photos courtesy of Toyota Motor Corp. and Lexus North America
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