I dare an owner to stick a big decal on the hood of an Italian chef kissing his pinched fingers, because in white this thing is starting to remind me of an ultra-futuristic pizza box.
There's an incredibly boring and arcane legal argument about how to characterize "leases" like these. I'll skip the details, but the relevant questions are:
1) Whether Lexus can make the "lease" nontransferrable (to achieve the anti-speculative effect); and
2) What happens when a bankruptcy court (or other forum) has to rule on what the "lessee" actually owns.
I'm sure Lexus has great lawyers who already thought of these issues, but I question whether this is a workable arrangement and whether it will have the desired effect.
@VeeArrrSix: Ha! I thought "jeez, this guy has big bucks....what's he doing here?" That swished right over my head.....I need some coffee or sumpthin. ;)
now... will you have to PROVE you own an LFA to get a replacement CF hood prop, or will any schmuck (like me) with several hundred dollars be able to walk into their friendly lexus parts dept and buy one? #lexuslfa
Gas struts are totally the wrong thing for this car. For one thing, you can't easily make one in carbon fiber. But here's the clincher:
Gas struts wear out. Just sitting around they slowly lose their charge over time. That's physics, can't change it. And just sitting around, the prop rod keeps on being a prop rod. It weighs about the same as a single gas strut - a carbon fiber one probably weighs less - and right there you've got a weight savings. One prop rod displaces two heavy, fallible gas struts.
Is a prop rod fallible? Sure. It can rust into nothingness - oops, not this one. It can bend and break under load - oops, you'd have to do something stupid, like bend the car around a phone pole to do that. It can pop out of the catch hole and drop the hood on your head - oops, that's gonna leave a mark. But with $400K invested, you're probably not going to lift the hood outside of your climate-controlled, hermetically sealed, Mafia insured eighteen-space garage. So no wind. The Mafia wouldn't allow it.
At 88 miles an hour, the two solenoid cases pop out of the Alien intake and start eating the oil coolers. #lexuslfa
@Ryanrule: Any car that cost more than $20k shouldn't have a prop rod. That is one of the things that really pissed me off about the wife's Trailblazer, a $34k (sticker) vehicle that uses a damn metal broom stick to hold up the hood. I've driven GM vehicles built from 1973-2004 and it is the only one that can't hold the hood up. Even the lowly G-bodies got proper hood hinges with springs. #lexuslfa
@skaycog: I'm personally a fan of the matte black look. Mainly because I can apply it with a rattle can to my freshly ground, previously rusted 1991 civic hatchback.
@livinlvis: I don't know about the scratching easily. I think matte paint is still in its babyhood with improvements being made. I've heard that it's easy to spray on, but hard to keep the matte finish. We'll see if it's just a fad, or an everlasting thing.
I guess that looks nice-but if I was buying a 400k car I'd expect a bit higher tec to hold up the hood than the CF version of a broom stick. This is like having forged titanium handles for your hand-cranked windows. #lexuslfa
@ProstWest: An F40 owner is tugging his rope because he bought and paid for a racing car with license plates, i.e. virtually no human comforts that might sully the power/weight ratio. Plexiglass windows (the early models had sliding door windows), no sound deadening, no carpeting, no power steering or brakes, full racing seats, and etc.-basically no amenities other than AC.
The LFA is designed for and marketed to someone looking for high performance as well as all the highest-tech and greatest creature comforts that his 400,000.00 can buy. Your analogy is like comparing a Veyron to a Le Mans Prototype. Other than that, it was....perfect. #lexuslfa
@powermatic: No, my analogy was like comparing an ultra high performance street car to an ultra high performance street car. Is it perfect to invoke the zenith of Maranello's efforts when discussing a car from the company that brought us the Paseo? Likely not, but let's face it- the Toyota buyer who just left 400 large at the dealership is not checking his own washer fluid. Therefore the engineers made a smart, easy decision and spec'ed the epitome of lightweight engine-bay access technology: the prop rod. Enzo's boys came to the same conclusion, albeit as part of a package that compromised a great deal more than the LFA in areas that actually affect the driver's comfort. #lexuslfa
@powermatic: All right, let me try again, with your gracious encouragement. The car should have a prop rod because it's faster that way. The prospective owner is not negatively impacted by economizing both weight and expenditure in this design area. #lexuslfa
11/24/09
11/23/09
11/23/09
Maybe I need lunch.
11/23/09
1) Whether Lexus can make the "lease" nontransferrable (to achieve the anti-speculative effect); and
2) What happens when a bankruptcy court (or other forum) has to rule on what the "lessee" actually owns.
I'm sure Lexus has great lawyers who already thought of these issues, but I question whether this is a workable arrangement and whether it will have the desired effect.
11/23/09
11/23/09
11/23/09
No thanks.
11/23/09
11/23/09
11/23/09
11/23/09
11/23/09
I wish! One VeeDub, one Olds in mine.
Thats the Jalop meme garage.
11/23/09
11/23/09
11/23/09
11/23/09
Rightly or wrongly, I'm going to go ahead and file that away as a good thing.
11/23/09
They still control the ultimate destiny of the car.
11/04/09
11/04/09
Gas struts wear out. Just sitting around they slowly lose their charge over time. That's physics, can't change it. And just sitting around, the prop rod keeps on being a prop rod. It weighs about the same as a single gas strut - a carbon fiber one probably weighs less - and right there you've got a weight savings. One prop rod displaces two heavy, fallible gas struts.
Is a prop rod fallible? Sure. It can rust into nothingness - oops, not this one. It can bend and break under load - oops, you'd have to do something stupid, like bend the car around a phone pole to do that. It can pop out of the catch hole and drop the hood on your head - oops, that's gonna leave a mark. But with $400K invested, you're probably not going to lift the hood outside of your climate-controlled, hermetically sealed, Mafia insured eighteen-space garage. So no wind. The Mafia wouldn't allow it.
At 88 miles an hour, the two solenoid cases pop out of the Alien intake and start eating the oil coolers. #lexuslfa
11/04/09
+1 on the gas struts.
Nothing like having marginal ones and finding today was the day it was too cool to hold the hood up when a 2 mph breeze touched it.
/learned not to place hand in hood's travel without a broomstick as a backup hood prop...the hard way #lexuslfa
11/04/09
Supercars are NOT reliable.
11/05/09
This was done for weight alone. And it passed the cost-benefit analysis algorithm that Toyota doubtless subject the entire car to. #lexuslfa
11/05/09
11/04/09
11/04/09
pfft
11/04/09
11/04/09
11/04/09
Civic dx?
Is there any other kind, baby? #lexuslfa
11/04/09
11/24/09
11/24/09
#tips
11/24/09
#tips
11/04/09
11/04/09
11/04/09
The LFA is designed for and marketed to someone looking for high performance as well as all the highest-tech and greatest creature comforts that his 400,000.00 can buy. Your analogy is like comparing a Veyron to a Le Mans Prototype. Other than that, it was....perfect. #lexuslfa
11/04/09
11/04/09
vaya con dios #lexuslfa
11/04/09
11/04/09
Wow. #lexuslfa