I think that TopGear may have just reduced my "Japanese recession" depression quite a bit.

I was working and as usual, I'm listening to TopGear via Minitube (yes.. I do use Linux... how could a Efficiency oriented person use windows anyway!?). Why listening? Because I need concentration and normally I listen to things... only diverting my attention to the video when something real special POP's-UP.

And it DID! I heard a very distinct whooooaaaaaaaaaaa followed by "it's called the LFA". Evidently the eyes turned away from the code and got fixed into the Minitube window.

For those of you that read my blog or know-me in person, its very clear to you that I'm suffering with this GREEN mania that is infecting the Japanese automotive industry.
Honda, a brand that meant everything to me, killed the S2000, killed the NSX and then unhappy with all this nonsense created a CivicType-r replacement heavier then the previous one and with a cheaper and ultimately worse rear suspension.
Toyota Killed the Supra.
Nissan Killed the Skyline and it's glorious in-line 6 bi-turbo engine.
Mazda re-created the Renesis and that was fine... if it was bi-turbo... but it isn't.
Subaru is making uglier cars by the minute... and stopped evolving it's car, widening the Lancer Evolution's superiority gap.
Mitsubishi... well mitsubishi at least is working right.

But now Lexus... A.K.A. Toyota shows a department that survived the GREEN disease devastation.

Now TOPGEAR... don't say that Lexus never created a supercar, Lexus is Toyota... and Toyota created the Supracar.
This LFA is very very interesting, I know, it's a V10... ok, not perfect, but it's a V10 with the size of a V8, the weight of a V6 and the lightness of an Inline 6 or 4, soooo it's actualy very OK!
And it produces 552Bhp from just 4.8 liters... that's 115Bhp/liter... well above my 100Bhp/liter minimum acceptance mark. And of course, being a proper car, redline starts at 9000rpm witch is perfect.

Go go Toyota, finally I no longer look at you as the company that used to build cars and now builds... prius!

Guess that the 115Bhp/liter of that V10 still makes me thing that the now dead Honda NSX Replacement project might have a 125Bhp/liter V10, since it's projects remainings (the Japans Super GT championship HSV-010-GT) are racing on a 3.8liter V8 producing 500Bhp...131.5Bhp/Liter
The sound, at least is very promising.
;)

The Full Video

Road & Track December 2009 Samurai Warrior Lexus LFA Japan's Newest Supercar Nissan GT-RAutomobile December 2009 Satanic Lexus LFA Unmasked