Eddie Alterman at Car & Driver Magazine is the one that inspired the title… In one of his columns he refered to the new Lexus LF-A as the WTF. And I think there is good reason.
This car has been in development with Toyota for 10 years. The problem is that in the 10 years it has been in development, the targets have all moved. A LOT. Let’s look at some specs…
- Nürburgring Nordschleife Lap in 7:24 (Toyota claimed)
- Top Speed is 202mph
- Curb Weight is 3263 pounds and power to weight is 5.9lb/hp
- 0-60 is 3.6 seconds
- Sticker Price will be between $350,000 and $375,000
Those seem to be impressive numbers, except for one thing… that price is out of line with the rest of the performance. There is also the matter of the styling, which has been compared to the Nissan GT-R… or a Supra that spent too much time in the plastic wing aisle at Pep Boys. It isn’t that it is terribly ugly, but it just isn’t unique.
Since we brought up the Nissan GT-R (I have trouble not refering to it as the skyline):
- Nissan claims a Nürburgring Nordschleife Lap of 7:26.7 (video confirmed)
- Top Speed is 193 (Nissan, but Motor Trend said 195)
- Curb Weight is about 3800lbs and power to weight is 7.9lb/hp
- 0-60 is 3.5 seconds (after March 2009)
- Sticker Price is between $80,000 and $90,000
Wow. A slight performance increase and a MASSIVE price increase.
Now, let’s toss a third into the mix… Let’s try a car more tuned for performance and a little less towards touring. The Corvette ZR-1:
- GM did a video confirmed Nürburgring Nordschleife Lap of 7:26.4
- Top Speed is 210mph
- Curb Weight is about 3352lbs and power to weight is 5.3lb/hp
- 0-60 is 3.3 seconds
- Sticker price is under $114,000
Now we have race…
But the big question for me is why did it take 10 years to develop this car? It would be one thing if is was amazing, but the only amazing thing about the car is the price. The lap time at The ‘Ring is respectable, certainly. But it is barely beating cars that cost a fraction as much.
Some industry insiders say that part of the reason is that Toyota hasn’t ever really tried to break ground. They take the ideas of others and tweak them… Even with the LF-A, the car that is to be their image car, it looks like another makers design.
I don’t have a beef with Toyota. they are the number 1 carmaker in the world, they obviously can do some things right (current acceleration issues notwithstanding). But without a personality and a soul, why would someone spend $350,000 for a car that underperforms its peers while costing SEVERAL times as much.