2012 Lexus LFA Nürburgring Package

Chassis No. JTHHX8BHXC1000312
Serial No. LFA 314
Although Lexus had acquired an enviable reputation for producing high quality, four-door saloon cars, by the late 1990s Akio Toyoda, then CEO of Lexus's parent company Toyota, was seeking to enhance the company's rather staid image by entering the all-important supercar market. After an extensive nine-year design and development phase, the resulting Lexus LFA was finally revealed at the 2009 Tokyo Motor Show; its long awaited and highly impressive technical specification instantly rendering it one of the stars of the show.
The LFA featured an intricate carbon fiber monocoque structure to which aluminum front and rear subframes were attached; the front suspension being via conventional double wishbones and the rear via a multi-link arrangement. All four corners were equipped with race-developed, remote-reservoir KYB dampers, each reputedly costing $9,500, whereas Brembo six-piston front and four-pot rear monobloc calipers worked in conjunction with carbon ceramic discs and an advanced brake-by-wire system to address the car's considerable braking requirements.
However, at the heart of the LFA was a technical tour de force: the brilliant 1LR-GUE engine. Employing numerous lessons learned from Toyota's newly-redundant V10 Formula 1 engine program, Lexus developed a 4.8-liter, 40-valve V10 in conjunction with Yamaha; the resulting unit producing some 552 horsepower at 8,700 rpm and a similarly impressive maximum torque figure of 354 lb-ft at 6,800 rpm.
Constructed from a combination of aluminum, magnesium and titanium alloys, the “GUE” was a masterpiece of packaging, boasting smaller external dimensions than a V8 unit of comparable output, yet weighing no more than most conventional V6 engines. Featuring ultra-lightweight internal components, including impossibly expensive forged titanium connecting rods, the unit generated minimal inertia; its resulting throttle response more akin to many high specification racing engines than a road going powerplant.
Unusually for a road car, the LFA featured dry-sump lubrication which enabled the engine to be fitted with a shallower sump, and was therefore located lower in the chassis. Its oil cooler was located in the “valley” of its 72-degree V angle, while a harmonically managed titanium exhaust system ensured that the resulting scream, particularly as the engine approached its 9,000 rev limit, was entirely unlike any other supercar exhaust note.
Of the 500 LFAs constructed, just 64 were configured with the $70,000 ultimate-specification Nürburgring option package; the designation both a reference to the hat-trick of class wins by the LFA in the fabled Nürburgring 24 Hours between 2008 and 2010, and the circuit which had proved instrumental in the car's development. Although Nürburgring package cars boasted a modest power increase to 563 horsepower and a reduction in gearshift times of their six-speed, semi-automatic transmission, the real focus of the package was reduced weight, optimised suspension set up and greater aerodynamic efficiency. Some 200 pounds were saved relative to the standard car, while numerous carbon fiber aerodynamic devices, such as a fixed, as opposed to retractable, rear wing, a front splitter and front-mounted turning vanes were fitted to improve handling. The resulting performance was predictably spectacular, with its top speed of 201 mph and a 0-60 mph time of just 3.7 seconds being instrumental in the LFA lapping the mythical Nürburgring in just 7:14.64, in August 2011; a figure which remained unbeaten for almost three years until it was usurped by the mighty Porsche 918 Spyder.
Bearing the unique LFA serial number of LFA 314, this eye-catching example is a California-spec car that was originally delivered to Jim Falk Lexus in Beverly Hills, California in the spring of 2012, finished in Orange with black Alcantara interior. It is understood to be one of only 25 Nürburgring Package cars delivered new in the US. Delivered to the Fleischman Collection on 19 April 2012, it has covered only minimal mileage since; a fact borne out by the car having covered just 433 miles as at the time of its first service by Lexus Santa Monica, more than two years later. Indeed, by the time of its most recent service, at Lexus South Bay (September 2021), this figure had increased to just 1,151 miles; the work included the supply and fitting of four new Bridgestone Potenza tires, at a total cost of more than $6,000.
At the time of cataloging, the car's odometer reading still displays only about 1,200 miles from new; a figure further enhanced by the car's single-owner status and careful preservation while residing in the Fleischman Collection. Accompanied by original factory literature, and a framed set of Sparco race gloves courtesy of LFA lead development driver, and five-time Daytona 24 Hour winner, Scott Pruett, LFA 314 remains among the most correct and complete of all LFAs, and would assuredly form a suitably spectacular focal point of any late-model focused supercar collection.