Lexus will make LF-A supercar

Reborn as 5.0-litre 500bhp GT500

Lexus GT500

It looks as if Toyota Racing will produce the Lexus LF-A supercar concept, first previewed here on PistonHeads – see related story link below. It's due by 2008, according to Autocar, and will make its production debut at the Tokyo Motor Show in October 2007.

The two-seater supercar is powered by what Lexus at the time called "a high-output V10 engine" and was first previewed at the Tokyo Motor Show last year. Since then, the reaction to it has been so positive that the Japanese car maker was persuaded to put it into production.

To be called the GT500, and likely to house the 500bhp 5.0-litre V10 that was in the concept, it will, at last, provide a suitable vessel into which Toyota can pour its hard- and expensively-won F1 expertise. There may also be a V8 version – the GT450 costing some £75,000 while the GT500 is likely to lighten your wallet by a whisker under £100,000.

Autocar reckons that Honda's announcement of the new NSX last year was the prod it needed to turn this concept into reality.