Lexus LFA: First production LFA in the UK at Goodwood

The first production Lexus LFA are now turning up, with the first UK Lexus LFA making an appearance at the Goodwood Supercar Sunday Breakfast Club

The Lexus LFA hasn’t had an easy gestation. Half a generation from the promise to the reality, and endless hiccups with lease and buy-back plans in the US – where Lexus initially refused to sell the LFA – meant many of the headlines were less than positive. Which is a real shame.

It’s a real shame because the LFA is, by any measure, a monumental achievement from Lexus. Yes, it may be judged by its slightly corporate-bland design, but what really matters is how it performs and drives. And it performs and drives extremely well.

The LFA boasts a 4.8 litre V10 with 552bhp, 354lb/ft of torque, a 9000 rpm redline and a six-speed sequential ‘box. That makes for a 0-60mph of 3.5 seconds and a top speed of over 200mph. What’s not to love?

Perhaps the price? £336,000 is a huge amount of money for a Lexus – however impressive it is. Not that it’s stopped five hundred hungry buyers around the world slapping down a deposit to take the Lexus supercar home.

All of which means – with LFA production finally starting at the start of 2011 (although disrupted, we assume, by the Tsunami issues in Japan) – that real-world production cars are starting to appear. And visitors to Goodwood’s Supercar Sunday Breakfast Club last week were treated to a close-up look at the first production LFA in the UK.

Naturally, Lexus managed to turn up with a camera crew to record the Oohs and Aahs of an appreciative – and knowledgeable – Breakfast Club audience, who fawned over the LFA and gave Lexus some nice VT to bandy around.

Which we happily do.

Lexus LFA at Goodwood’s Supercar Sunday Breakfast Club Video