Toyota Has a Three-Hour Video With Lexus LFA V-10 Engine Sounds

Why? Well... Why not?

Lexus LFA

Photo by: Yoshifumi Ogawa

Adrian Padeanu

By: Adrian Padeanu

Jan 8, 2025 at 6:00am ET

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Much like Toyota used a V-12 only for the Century, its premium division Lexus reserved the V-10 for the LFA. Some 12 years after production ended, the supercar is back in an unusually long official video focusing on the engine soundtrack and exhaust note. It's not the first video of this type we've seen recently. Last August, there was similar three-hour footage just with Subaru boxer engine sounds.

The video comes to us via Toyota Times, an official magazine that covers interesting subjects from time to time. Assistant Manager Sano reveals Lexus "built and tested countless prototypes" with Yamaha. Codenamed "1LR-GUE," the musically tuned ten-cylinder mill revs to 9,500 rpm. Here's why the even-firing naturally aspirated 4.8-liter engine sounds this good:

"The engineer overseeing sound design at the time stressed the need to deliver solid first-, second-, and third-order sounds. They worked to create an exhaust sound with clear octave harmonies, adding half-orders on the intake side at high RPMs to produce a dense, complex sound. They also incorporated analytical methods used in phonetics to develop the ideal exhaust sound, powerful at low RPMs and with a sharper tone at higher revs."

Speaking for Toyota Times, Sensitivity Performance Development Department Assistant Manager Yusuke Nakayama said the bank angle of 72 degrees was explicitly chosen to improve the soundtrack. He says the V-10 has the "roar of an angel." Toyota uncovered old documents written during the LFA's development and found out why the engineering team ultimately opted for this configuration:

"Simulations that added two cylinders to a V-8 engine with a 90-degree bank angle could not produce the ideal sound due to uneven firing intervals. We've decided to develop an engine with a bank angle of 72 degrees."

While these neat images show a naked LFA and its sweet-sounding V-10, the lengthy video focuses on the Nürburgring Edition. Of the 500-car production run, only 50 were made in the hotter specification. The retractable rear spoiler was replaced by a fixed wing, which was part of an aerodynamic package that also included a beefier front spoiler lip and canards.

Photo by: Yoshifumi Ogawa

These rare LFAs sat 0.4 inches (10 millimeters) lower to the ground on lighter mesh-like BBS wheels wrapped in Bridgestone Potenza RE070 tires. The track-focused version also had an extra 11 hp and slightly quicker gear shifts from the six-speed automated manual Aisin transmission.

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Despite being worshipped these days, the LFA was a commercial flop. Even though the short production run ended in 2012, Lexus sold three “new” cars in 2019 and another two the year before. In 2023, there was still a never-titled LFA in Australia. The owner of a Toyota dealer had to buy it due to a regulation change that would’ve made the supercar unregistrable.

Although a follow-up has been ruled out, Lexus is developing an electric supercar with the "LFA’s secret sauce." It’ll be a production version of the Electrified Sport concept and may get a simulated manual gearbox. Meanwhile, a more affordable LFR (name not confirmed) is being developed as possibly one of the last all-new V-8 cars ever. It’s bound to be a road-going version of a new Toyota GT3 race car. The track machine will go racing in 2026, so the street-legal equivalent should come soon.

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