Lexus LFA has top shelf price

In a way it really had to be or the high fliers who buy these cars would not have given it a second glance. It had to be something very special and special it is indeed as we discovered this week behind the wheel at Victoria's Sandown race track.

Sure it goes hard and stops just as quickly, with an exhilirating exhaust note that sounds like an F1 car — but there's so much more to this car. Ten years in the making, the LFA symbolises everything that Lexus says it strives to be — innovative, passionate and inspirational.

TECHNOLOGY

The heart of the matter is a carbon fibre shell fitted with a light weight all-aluminium 4.8-litre V10 that pumps out 412kW of power and 480Nm of torque, combined with a sequential single clutch robotised manual transmission and oil cooler.

The LFA has a top speed of 325km/h and accelerates to 100km/h in 3.7 seconds. A special Nurburgring edition boosts power to 420kW. Yamaha gave the guys some help with the engine design and as a result it revs all the way to 9000rpm.

DESIGN

Sixty-five per cent of LFA's body structure is carbon fibre, while the remaining 35 per cent is aluminium. The original analogue dials were replaced with a digital instrumentation because the analogue tachometer couldn't keep up.

The LFA is an infinitely better looking thing than Nissan's GT-R and faster around Germany's famous Nurburgring too, where it held the production car record until recently. Among others the LFA boasts the world's first seatbelt airbag to reduce chest and neck bruising.

LIMITED EDITION

Only 500 of the cars will be built, of which 170 have already found homes in the United States, another 150 have gone to Japan itself and a mere handful are headed our way — 10 to be exact (maybe a couple more if Lexus can swing it).

In the States, one couple bought the car simply because it was the most expensive Lexus available and they had always owned the top model. But the buyers are not the usual suspects, revealed Lexus Australia corporate manager Peter Evans.

For the most part they're successful, self-made men, 35-45 years of age whose faces you are unlikely to see in the newspapers. One owns a Bugatti Veyron and the others own or have owned other performance cars. One man is even thinking of buying a second Nurburg edition to keep and drive in the United States.

As a group, Evans said they are remarkably unpretentious.

Lexus took three buyers to the Nurburgring where until a few weeks ago the LFA held the lap record for a production car. What they share is an overwhelming enthusiasm for the car.

"They're a fascinationg group of individuals," he said.

So what do you get for your $700,000 apart from the car? For one thing you get private tuition from racing driver Alan Jones who is the Lexus LFA ambassador. It doesn't get better than that.

LEXUS LFA

Price: $750,000
Economy: 16.7 l/100km; 387g/km CO2
Safety equipment: 5 airbags, ABS, EBD, stability control.
Engine: 412kW/480Nm 4.8-litre 40-valve DOHC V10
Transmission: rear-mounted six-speed automated sequential gearbox
Body: 2-door, 2 seats
Dimensions: 4505mm (L); 1895mm (W); 1220mm (H); 2605mm (WB)
Weight: 1540kg
Tyre size: 20in (fr 265/35, rr 305/30), no spare
Performance: 0-100 km/h 3.7 seconds, top speed 325km/h.