A little over a month after its world debut at the 2009 Tokyo Auto Show, Lexus' most ambitious -- and most expensive -- car ever, the $350,000 552-hp-V-10-powered 2012 LFA, made its first appearance at a major North American auto show in Los Angeles.
Here's what editor-at-large Arthur St. Antoine, who had the chance to sample the supercar at the famous Nurbugring Nordschliefe thought about the LFA's on-road behavior:
2012 Lexus LFA Rear View 2
First impression: The LFA rides hard. Really hard. No variable shocks; the chassis is chef's choice only. On smoother stretches of autobahn, the stiffness is largely irrelevant, but it's not hard to imagine the LFA growing tiresome during extended drives on brittle roads. The V-10 is scintillating: It pulls hard, flaunts seemingly hidden torque (that light package), and propels the car ferociously (Toyota claims a 0-to-60 of 3.7 seconds and a top end of 204 mph). At 6000 rpm it's just screaming away -- with 3000 rpm left! The sound is racy, but nowhere near as arousing as a flat-plane-crank Italian V-8.
Full-bore on the track, shifts are quick enough-but, again, the superstar blueboods with their dual-clutch boxes fare far better. Steering feel is solid, though when teasing out the limits the chassis is nervy. The LFA lacks the easy, "organic" feel of, say, the SLS AMG. In contrast, the Lexus is very much a "digital" car -- it brandishes all the requisite high-tech weaponry, yet it feels distant. It's the difference between a car from a company that's been making supercars for decades, and a car from a company that's making...well, it's first supercar ever.

2012 Lexus LFA