I must admit before the Nurburgring 24 Hrs I had never heard of the Lexus LFA, guess I’ve been “living under a rock!” Then on our first day at the track I saw the Lexus LFA for the first time at the Breidscheid spectator area. A sleek looking car was quickly decelerating as it came down the steep hill in torrential rain, with its yellow headlights blazing (which always makes it difficult to get correct exposure, BTW) before turning sharply to the left, and accelerating down another hill, before climbing up a hill and shooting through a slight right-hand curve into the mountains. I thought to myself “wow” what a car. When I got back to the hotel I showed other guests the photos of this car, and they told me it was a Lexus LFA. I immediately did some research on the web about this car.

The LFA supercar was made by Lexus (http://www.lexus.com/models/LFA, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lexus_LFA) and the production version was made from carbon fiber-reinforced polymer body and powered by a V10 engine. Production of the LFA started in 2010 with a base price of about USD375K. In 2012, a circuit-tuned version was made with a base price of about USD445K. The final version was a Nurburgring Package model. Production ended in December 2012 and 500 cars were built.

Gazoo racing (http://www.gazooracing.com/nur2013/english/index.html, http://gazoo.com/racing/english/index.asp) entered a Lexus LFA Number 79 in the Division 1 SP8 class of the 2013 Nurburgring 24 Hrs. The team of Akio Toyoda, Masahiko Kageyama, Hiroaki Ishiura, and Kazuya Oshima finished second in the SP8 class and 37th overall (out of 210 cars that participated, and 164 cars that finished). A full race report for the Gazoo LFA can be found here (http://www.gazooracing.com/nur2013/english/report/vln3/index.html)

Division 1 SP8 Class

1. 1st No.131 Rheydter Club fur Motorsport e.V. im DMV/Aston Martin Vantage
2. 2nd No.140 GAZOO Racing/Lexus LFA
3. 3rd No.144 Aston Martin Test Centre/Aston Martin Vantage
4. 4th No.130 / Audi RS 5GT
5. 5th No.135 / Lexus IS-F
6. 6th No.138 Aston Martin Test Centre/Aston Martin V8 Vantage
7. 7th No.136 / Lexus IS-F

Over the next couple of days during qualifying and the race I made sure I got shots of the LFA at all of the track locations I went to. Was lucky enough to visit the LFA static display at the Nurburgring Pavilion Center, and even brought a 1:43 scale resin model of the LFA, which was a lot cheaper than the real thing. Hope you enjoy the photos of the Lexus LFA.

Breidscheid spectator area during the Friday afternoon practice session (May 17)

My first sight of the Gazoo Racing Lexus LFA. Wow what a cool looking car (Canon 5D Mark III, 300mm f2.8L IS II with 1.4x extender III, 420mm, f/4, 1/1000, ISO 100; Bottom of spectator hill at top of stairs)
A “lucky” panning shot of the Gazoo Racing Lexus LFA speeding through a left-hander in the rain.  It was a “lucky” shot since its the first time I’ve shot a decent panning shot at such a slow shutter speed (Canon 5D Mark III, 300mm f2.8L IS II with 1.4x extender III, 420mm, f/18, 1/13, ISO 100; Top of spectator hill, looking down towards the left hand corner at bottom of hill)

Gazoo Racing Lexus LFA speeding uphill through a right-hander into the forest (Canon 5D Mark III, 300mm f2.8L IS II with 1.4x extender III, 420mm, f/4, 1/1000, ISO 100; Bottom of spectator hill at top of stairs)

Eschbach spectator area during the Saturday morning qualifying session (May 18)

Gazoo Racing Lexus LFA leading a BMW through the downhill left-hander at Brunnchen (Canon 5D Mark III, 300mm f2.8L IS II, f/3.5, 1/1250, ISO 100; Spectator hill at Brunnchen)

The start of the ADAC Zurich 24H-Rennen on Sunday afternoon at 5 pm (May 19)

Gazoo Racing Lexus LFA racing down the front straight (lower left) (Canon 5D Mark III, 300mm f2.8L IS II with 1.4x extender III, 420mm, f/4, 1/1000, ISO 100; Top row on very right-hand side of Mercedes-Tribune)

Gazoo Racing Lexus LFA about to pass a Porsche on the straight at stand T5a of GP Circuit (Canon 5D Mark III, 300mm f2.8L IS II, f/3.2, 1/320, ISO 100; Top of open-air stand T5a)

Gazoo Racing Lexus LFA going through the downhill curve after stand T5a of GP Circuit (Canon 5D Mark III, 300mm f2.8L IS II, f/2.8, 1/200, ISO 160; Top of open-air stand T5a)

Gazoo Racing Lexus LFA exiting the downhill right-hand curve just after stand T5a of GP Circuit (Canon 5D Mark III, 300mm f2.8L IS II, f/3.2, 1/800, ISO 1600; Top of open-air stand T5a)Gazoo Racing Lexus LFA entering downhill left-hand curve at stand T5b of GP Circuit (Canon 5D Mark III, 300mm f2.8L IS II, f/3.2, 1/800, ISO 1600; Through fence at bottom of open-air stand T5b)

 

Lexus LFA SP8 class winner (15th overall) for the 2012 Nurburgring 24 Hrs at the Pavilion Center on Monday (May 20)

(Canon 5D Mark III, 50mm f1.2L, f/5.6, 1/80, ISO 100)

(Canon 5D Mark III, 50mm f1.2L, f/2.8, 1/125, ISO 100)

(Canon 5D Mark III, 50mm f1.2L, f/1.2, 1/400, ISO 100)

(Canon 5D Mark III, 50mm f1.2L, f/5, 1/150, ISO 100)

(Canon 5D Mark III, 50mm f1.2L, f/1.2, 1/40, ISO 1000)

(Canon 5D Mark III, 50mm f1.2L, f/1.4, 1/200, ISO 100)

(Canon 5D Mark III, 50mm f1.2L, f/1.2, 1/60, ISO 100)

Race day on Monday at the straight along outdoor stand T6 at the GP Circuit (May 20)

(Canon 5D Mark III, 300mm f2.8L IS II, f/7.1, 1/100, ISO 100; Top of stand T6)