Who has $400,000 and wants to fly under the radar? There aren’t many situations where dropping that much coin goes unnoticed.
That is unless we’re talking about the humble Lexus LFA supercar — which we are.
If you haven’t the foggiest idea what the LFA is or was, you’re not alone. The car never received the kind of fanfare as Lambos and Ferraris. But in 2011, Lexus did throw its hat in the speed demon ring and unleashed the LFA with a 4.8L V10 engine capable of 550 horsepower, 350 lb-ft of torque and topping out at 202 mph.
The supercar’s components, however, were shortsighted, especially for a $380,000 performance vehicle. The car had a reverse button oddly tacked to the side of the steering wheel. On the shifters, a driver had to pass through neutral to get back to first. And the hatch space was poorly designed. But the gauge cluster was super cool and it drove like the wind … a throaty, pipe-popping wind.
Lexus only produced 500 units total worldwide. Which is why it’s highly interesting that 12 new(ish) examples are still out there.
According to Autoblog, it turns out there are indeed 12 LFAs classified as dealer inventory right now in the States. While Lexus had originally intended to only take orders directly from customers to control cost and speculation, poor sales led the automaker to give dealers a chance to order the car and sell it themselves.
Pretty straightforward stuff, but still a shocker to see a limited-run supercar sit in a dealer’s hands for five years. They could be holding them for a collector’s item. Or, perhaps, they’re just looking for the right person to scout ‘em out and take it off their hands.
Either way, it’s likely the only supercar that potentially no one will look at twice. Which, hey, we’re not one for flashy, but that seems to kind of miss the whole point of buying a supercar in the first place.
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