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 2012 Lexus LFA vs 2010 Nissan GT-R...

Comparison: 2012 Lexus LFA vs 2010 Nissan GT-R...

What Do You Need to Determine the Street Value of a $375,000 Lexus LFA? A Dyno, Dragstrip and An $87,000 Nissan GT-R.

(10 May 2010, Motor Trend)

The phone rings. It's Bill from down the street, with an offer he thinks we can't refuse. While he's normally our local fix for luxurious, relaxing trips (that sometimes cause drowsiness), today he proffers something vastly different: all the speed we can handle for 12 hours. The catch is this deal needs to go down in the next three days. Miss that window and his special shipment gets loaded into a crate and flown back to the Far East. Think about it he says, and get back to me.

What is there to consider?

Bill, you see, reps Lexus and is offering a 552-horsepower dose of nose-candy-colored LFA. We're intrigued, but also irked at the short notice and implication that we're easy and desperate for such a rush. Like we'd just drop everything and clear our schedule for a taste of this $375,000 LFA.

We call him back and arrange to meet the early the next morning at an industrial park off the freeway in Riverside, California.

They say the first hit is free, but this one is going to cost us a bit of our soul. Lexus USA owns but one LFA, a jet-black model used for advertising and potential customer events. This white one is on loan from Japan at substantial cost to the company -- air freight alone is some $40,000. Its time is up and it needs to go back ASAP, hence the last-minute notice.

It is also a preproduction prototype -- a crusher in industry parlance. It has no VIN or license plate, and sits on non-DOT-approved tires, so we can't drive it on the street. When we're done with it, it gets shipped back to Japan where it will likely be reduced to a fine, expensive powder. To ensure we don't facilitate an earlier end on this side of the Pacific, two watchful handlers will accompany us while we have it.

So, just how are we supposed to assess the LFA's street value with such draconian measures in place? We have a few tricks up our sleeve, but first we need verify its potency. Off to the speed shop.

The R&D center at K&N Air Filters dynos hundreds of cars a year in order to establish baseline figures and track performance of its products. Last year, K&N cycled its dynos over 6,800 times -- so often, that the companies that supply and support the dynomometer equipment use K&N's shop as a test bed for future upgrades. Bert, Dave, Kirk, and the rest of the guys that run the joint have seen a lot of cars come through, but judging by their reaction when the Toyota racing-liveried 18-wheeler pulls up, they haven't seen anything like the LFA.

Just what does $375,000 buy? About 3562 pounds of the purest, highest quality speed Japan has ever produced. Lexus claims a top speed of 202 mph from the LFA's 4.8-liter, Formula-1-derived, 552-horsepower V-10. Any way you cut it -- $232.00 per kilo or 6.5 lbs/hp -- those are impressive numbers. Are they for real? That's what we're about to find out.

Before we can even begin to strap the LFA down, it has to go up on a lift. There is small matter of removing three separate belly plans so that safety strap hard points can be accessed. Lexus claims it didn't initially plan on racing the LFA, and for the first time, that seems abundantly clear. More than 70 rubber gasket Torx bolts keep the front and two rear belly trays firmly attached to the car, necessitating some 30 minutes of removal time (and another 40 minutes to put it all back together).

Though the LFA is rear drive, we strap it to K&N's all-wheel drive Superflow dynamometer. Why? Because we tested our long-term, 2010 Nissan GT-R on the exact same system a few months earlier. (But more on that later.) Expectations are high, and K&N's dyno squad has a ritual when special cars like this pull in. Everyone present picks a horsepower number and throws in a buck for a winner-take-all dyno lottery. Most of the guys don't know much about the LFA, except what they've seen and heard during the first exploratory pass. No wonder wheel horsepower estimates run from 450 at the low end to 545 (only seven hp off the official crank number); the LFA's wide open wail has the guys itching for the upcoming supercar super lotto.

K&N's experts have decided on three runs in fifth gear (0.970:1), which is good for up to 172 mph. Fans positioned just ahead of the door handles are flipped on, directing air into the inlets above the wheel wells that feed the rear-mounted radiators. Dyno Dave toggles the upshift paddle until the LFA bogs in fifth. Around 50 mph he puts his right foot to the floor and the revs slowly begin to climb. Sixty, then 70 mph sweeps by steadily. At above 100 mph, the exhaust note sharpens to a hair-tingling yowl that turns into a fearsome shriek as revs continue to rise unabated. With the tach flashing and needle buried in the red, Dave lifts. Raw numbers flash upon the screen: 447.1 horsepower, 294.5 pound-feet of torque. After SAE correction, LFA output drops to 430.3 horsepower and 283.1 pound-feet of torque. We net nothing higher on successive passes, so it looks like the under takes all.

Perhaps there is another winner lurking in the dyno chart. When stacked against our long-term GT-R (see chart), it's not immediately clear which comes out ahead. The Lexus exhibits a sexy, racecar-like power curve, with all of its ponies smoothly served up at the end of the rev band. Godzilla makes significantly less power, but peaks some 5000 rpm earlier, which should mean more tractable and trackable performance. We shall see. More important is how the GT-R out-twists the LFA by nearly 100 pound-feet. The Lexus may lack the pull, but it still impresses with a table flat torque curve, with 90% of max delivered before 4000 rpm. With these thoughts churning, we decide to pop the LFA in sixth to see if will hit over 200 mph as claimed. What, you wouldn't?

Dyno Dave has seen a lot in this little room, but even he's excited about this blast to nowhere. "We get a lot of big power hot rods in here -- like this Nova last week that made over 1400 horsepower to the wheels. I'm used to older cars that vibrate. You know you're going too fast because things start to rattle. This is thing is so smooth and fast," says Dave. "You can get into a lot of trouble with this."

He woods the throttle again and we're off with a languid sweep of the digital needle. Sixth gear is tall (0.795:1), so we don't rapidly blast into the hundreds; we just keep inexorably piling on speed in 2- to 3-mph increments. The wincing and breath-holding begins just past 150, where lesser performance cars start to hit their limits -- electronically imposed or otherwise. Here the LFA is just relentless. Sure, there is no wind resistance on the dyno, but that only makes the exhaust note from the triple pipes sound that much more unholy -- like the union of a jet engine and Ducati race bike. No production V-10 has ever sounded this good. The digits 180, 190, 200 flicker in the cluster and we see 207 on the speedo before Dave lifts.

As the rollers bleed off excess speed with a howl, the SuperFlow's computer burps out a correction that shows the V-10 spinning at 8764 rpm when LFA hits 200.3 mph. Our head spins nearly as fast as we screw the belly pan back on and boogie to our next venue: the test track.

To put this Lexus (Lexus? Really?) in perspective, we truck over to nearby Autoclub Speedway in Fontana to join the rest of our crew -- and a very special guest. Since Bill never said we couldn't invite others to this bender, there to meet us is our favorite $87,000 yardstick -- our long term 2010 Nissan GT-R.

Subsequent testing proves the LFA to be dynamically superior to the GT-R in nearly every category. Any doubts that the Lexus is anything but a legitimate supercar are absolutely gutted on the test tarmac. Only supercars manage to brake from 60 in under 94 feet and pull 1.05 g on the skidpad. Sure, the GT-R retains bragging rights to 60 mph due to all wheel drive and shorter gearing, but to triple digits and beyond, it is all LFA. Then there is the way it handles our figure eight.

When provoked with blips of throttle mid-corner, the LFA's natural tendency is to snap its rear end out, but it's not what you'd call tail happy. As quickly as the tail can slip out, it also snaps back in with the barest lift of the throttle. Keep your right foot calm and there is tremendous grip and delicious neutrality in the way it enters and exits corners. The LFA feels far lighter and more balanced than the GT-R in every phase of driving; and with that V-10 singing, it's a rush like no other. The similarity both of these Japanese titans have is ease of use. You never think you're going that fast or cornering that hard -- until you look at your speedometer, lap time or competition in the rear view.

At no point was this made more clear than at the day's final stop: the dragstrip. There we lined up both supercars for one of our notorious throwdowns.

Even our hardened test crew puts down the clipboard and torque wrench when these two line up, murmuring mostly about how much wider the LFA looks and how low it sits. In truth, the GT-R is actually three tenths of an inch wider; the LFA only appears broader of beam because its roof is a half foot lower. The Lexus is also 6.1 inches shorter from nose to tail, and over 320 pounds lighter.

Although we already know who will win, it's all theoretical bench racing. During acceleration testing of the Lexus, we uncover an ugly truth about the LFA's long gestation period. Its sequential manual gearbox (SMG) feels years behind the dual clutch boxes like the GT-R.

Lexus claims no official launch control for the LFA, and its SMG transmission isn't particularly snappy when simply flooring the throttle. Yet all attempts at power braked launches (even with traction control completely shut off) are met with frantic resistance. Herky-jerky engagement results in only mid-4 second launches -- far off the claimed 3.6-second pace claimed by Lexus. At this point, our boy Bill suggests we try some illicit activity with his LFA. "Put it in neutral, rev to 4000 rpm, and then grab the + paddle for first gear," he says.

To his credit, road test editor Scott Mortara adamantly refuses -- not wanting to be the first (and last) journalist to litter the dragstrip with $375,000 worth of LFA powertrain. Only after a phone consultation with the engineers back at Lexus HQ, does Mortara grudgingly consent to try this technique.

It works, but not all of the time. A great launch means only a chirp of the tires and blistering acceleration, but vary the rpm just bit and the LFA torches its rubber before rocketing down the strip. A slight delay between paddle actuation and SMG response further complicates a fast start.

In comparison, few things are simpler than launching a GT-R. Since launch control has been removed, all it takes is a bit of powerbraking to help load the transmission and build boost. Then sledgehammer the pedal and hold on.

For our drag video (see below), we rely on time tested hand signals to stage and send the cars. After the ready confirmation, our starter's hands go up one at time. When they both go down, it's show time.

Nail the LFA launch just right -- just after the hands start coming down -- and a half-length holeshot on the GT-R is possible. That's enough to crush it from start to finish. Leave but a fraction of a second later, and the LFA becomes the hunted one. Eleven seconds have never felt this slow; at every upshift, the single-clutch Lexus loses precious inches off its lead to the double-clutching GT-R. One to two -- the GT-R hits 60 in just 3.5 seconds to the LFA's 3.8. Two to three, three to four -- the GT-R nearly pulls even as both accelerate into the triple digits. Only now the LFA begins to exhort its top end dominance. That three-tenths of a second advantage is gone by 90 mph. In fact, the LFA hits 100 mph four-tenths faster than the GT-R -- and just keeps going. As both flash past the quarter-mile marker, the LFA never looks back.

And yet, for those only interested in stoplight grand prix, the GT-R is still the better choice. While the LFA may be faster on paper and on limitless stretches of highway, Godzilla launches more consistently and feasts on imperfect launches. Nine times out of ten, the GT-R leaves quick enough to overcome the LFA's top-end advantage.

Time's up. The LFA is back on the truck and we're plummeting back to Earth, awash in residual afterglow. Back to being mere mortals (in possession of only one Japanese supercar), it is time now to asses the street value of this confounding Lexus LFA. In some ways it's too early to tell -- and that's not a copout. Only 500 are being made, and of those, only 150 will be available in the U.S., which means LFA will challenge exotics like the Carrera GT, SLR, Enzo, and Veyron in the realm of rarity. The steep pricetag and restrictive initial leasing program (to prevent speculators from buying and flipping) will further ensure this Lexus won't be at many Saturday morning car meets. That kind of exclusivity is a powerful aphrodisiac for many collectors and enthusiasts, which should keep LFAs residuals up long after the two-year leases end.

Remove the collectors and speculators from the equation, and the LFA is merely another absurdly fast, glorious sounding supercar, right? Oh, if it were only that simple. Armchair experts, looking hard at our images and videos, will dissect and ultimately denounce the LFA for not being invincible. Sure, if a GT-R can catch it off guard, so can a Lamborghini Gallardo, Porsche 911 Turbo, Corvette ZR-1, and Dodge Viper -- all for a lot less money. But citing times, trap speeds, or dollar signs as enough reason to elevate any one of those over the LFA is missing the point entirely. The LFA belongs in the elite supercar club as much as any choice Porsche, Ferrari, or Corvette. It looks and sounds like nothing else on the road, and is as fiendishly fast as it is complicated and indulgent -- the very embodiment of the country and motoring culture from which it comes.

As for what its worth on the street? You need only hear the intoxicating bark of that V-10 touching 9000 rpm to know the answer.

Every penny...

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