Daily Sparkz secured a front row seat at the world premiere of not one, but three supercars in Japan last week.
The countdown clock and music set the scene before Lexus’ new LFA concept was unveiled at Toyota’s Woven City plant in eastern Japan. It was directly in front of me, to the left of the stage, with room for the other two cars I was expecting – and when the wrap came off, it was essentially the Lexus Sport Concept, which I had previously seen debut at The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering and most recently on the concept lawn at Pebble Beach two days later.
The same elegant design for a forward-thinking flagship of the Lexus range will lead the way for future designs. Its wide but flat two-door shape combines dynamic elements that are visually reminiscent of the 2010-12 LFA. The big reveal here, however, was that the powertrain will be fully electric, but details about its specifics and potential performance were little revealed to the engineering team. Perhaps they are waiting for solid-state battery technology to mature?
Next on the scene were two cars that will be available long before the next-generation LFA. The Gazoo Racing-badged GR GT and its racing sibling, the GR GT3, presented a dramatic scene as they came into view, the four-litre V8 engines echoing in the background as they came to a stop.
Before we entered the hall, a display outside featured a Toyota 2000GT on loan from the nearby Fuji Motorsports Museum, and the long nose and swoopy hatchback tail were a nice throwback to the pioneering machines that will shape Toyota’s future. As is typical of a Japanese manufacturer, Toyota is drawing on its heritage and claiming that these cars embody its “shikinen sengu” – or “secret sauce” of automotive engineering – for a new generation.
After a warm-up exercise by Simon Humphries, Toyota’s operating officer and chief branding guru, the company’s chairman, Akio Toyoda, took the stage. We’d already heard that the impetus for this trio of cars was Toyoda’s visit to Pebble Beach 14 years ago, where he heard that “Toyota designs boring cars.”
His reaction was to feel “kuyashisa” – a Japanese word often used literally to express “frustration”, “regret” or “anger” – but Toyoda himself stood at the world premiere facing the English word “humiliation” – the harshest translation you can get. “I will never forget this feeling of humiliation,” Toyoda said on stage through an interpreter. “The pain is definitely the force that drives me even now.”
Wow, when was the last time you heard an automotive executive admit that? He also expressed his dismay that his products were outclassed in terms of performance on the dreaded Nürburgring Nordschleife. So it’s no surprise that the new GR GT raced around it in pre-production testing, as it aims for a lap time of under seven minutes.
With that in mind, Toyota told us how the road car and the race car were designed and built together, with each requirement complementing the other. It can really claim to be a GT3 race car with street license plates, and when I squint closely at its lines I get a strong sense of the Nissan GT-R R32 vibe, which isn’t a bad thing! Has Toyota created its very own JDM Godzilla? Time will tell…
The GR GT was born in a post-Covid world, and we saw photos of Toyota’s engineers all masked while they created the car’s basic layout. They considered a mid-engine layout since Toyoda had given them a completely open specification, but decided on a front engine and rear wheel drive. The road version also features a small electric motor (hybrids are banned in GT3 racing) that sends extra power to its wild, rear-mounted gearbox – which they proudly showed off in cutaway format, along with the all-new engine and turbos.
The spaceframe chassis made entirely of aluminum is also a real eye-catcher, but where exactly the LFA Concept – which uses this platform – will house its batteries is an interesting question. Of course, one would assume it has all-wheel drive with multiple motors front and rear, so there’s no need for the GR GT’s carbon torque tube.
While this was clearly visible, many details were still under wraps. We expect the GR GT to go on sale sometime in 2027 and have had a lot of questions about pricing. The best answer was: “Reference the road cars of our GT3 racing competitors.” So if we consider this a 992.2 generation Porsche 911, that’s somewhere over $200,000 but under $250,000.
Another important detail we learned from Humphries was: “When this car is finally finished, it will fulfill Akio’s final request to completely redefine the sound of an electric sports car.” And perhaps that’s the only sad aspect of this launch: the iconic sound of the LFA’s V10 – which has developed such a cult-like respect in recent years – will likely never be heard again. This was a car that didn’t sell well because it was probably ahead of its time.
How will the second generation LFA be viewed and, more specifically, what will it sound like? With the GR GT, however, you can rest easy because a day later at Fuji Speedway, we heard a bit of encouragement as the car revved up hard in the garage. As I stood directly behind it, my flapping jeans testified to the current output of 641 hp.
After all, it seems that not all Toyotas are boring.
Images: Charles Bradley
