Published:
6 April 2012In keeping with its exterior, the Lexus LFA has a cabin with an exquisite mix of details that won’t be to everyone’s taste.
Aside from the navigation/sound system control pad, which you’ll also find on the Lexus RX450h, it’s all bespoke in here. The beautifully crafted switches for the seat controls, the sweet metal wiper and indicator stalks and the quality of the air vents all deserve a mention.
They have a bronze-coloured satin finish that, we imagine, will date like a newspaper but which at the moment exudes a hi-tech, delicate feel – slightly sci-fi, like a prop from a Gerry Anderson TV show. That you can spot naked carbonfibre on the sills only enhances the effect.
It’s fairly functional inside, though. You sit low, surrounded by high sills, a high window line and a high dashboard. It’s all very cocooning. The driving position itself is beyond reproach, although the seats could offer more lateral support. The steering wheel (a little fussy for us) adjusts for reach and rake with a comprehensive range.
There’s no conventional handbrake or gearlever. The Lexus LFA's forward gears are selected solely by the well crafted paddles, reverse via a button on the dash (you must travel into and out of neutral first, going either way, via a dual pull on the paddles).
There’s a smattering of switches on the dash, a couple of which adjust such things as the gearshift speed, signified on what initially looks like a conventional instrument binnacle. But even here, all is not what it seems. The big, circular LCD revcounter smoothly, electrically eases across the display when you call up the main menu, and the speedometer within it is digital. Beneath the rear hatch, there’s a smattering of luggage space, which is shallower but wider than you’ll find in any other mid-engined car with this kind of performance.
