LFA Concept Car World Premiere | Lexus Europe

Heat. Heat. Heat. Hey, heat. Hey, heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Well, good morning everyone and thank you for taking the time and the trouble of coming all this way to the Toyota Higashi Fuji plant here in eastern Japan. Now originally this was a press shop and as some of you may know it was the factory where Shichiro Toyota and Nakamura Kenya created the first century all the way back in 1967. The spirit of invention that was born here is now reborn as the inventor garage of woven city. A facility for creating the future. Now today will be a celebration not only of invention but of something I know we all love. A celebration of the car. The excitement, the thrill, the love for speed. All things I think everyone in this room and everyone watching online shares a passion for. But as with many things in life, a story of strength begins with a story of what’s called in Japanese kuasha. It’s a strong word, but the nearest is humiliation. And I want to tell you all about this from two viewpoints. Now, I’ve been working as a designer here for 36 years. And I I can honestly say that as a designer, there’s nothing more painful than being told that what you’ve put your heart and soul into is boring. 14 years ago at Pebble Beach in America, that’s what exactly what happened. When Akia was told on his visit there, Lexus is boring. That feeling of humiliation was a turning point and it became a source of determination. After that, Akio stood up and made a promise. No more boring cars. So when we went to consult with him about how we should present this car at Pebble Beach this year, you know, his answer was very simple. Just put it out there. Let it speak for itself. And that’s exactly what we did. with no explanation. We let people form their own opinions. And I’m pleased to share that at Pebble Beach this year, there wasn’t one person who said that Lexus was boring, to be innovative, adventurous, original, to help our customers discover this is what Lexus is born to do. And with this car, we wanted our customers to discover a new level of sensory immersion. The vehicle behind me has meant big breakthroughs. Dramatic proportions, packaging innovation. Just look at the stance, the rear view. It’s just beautiful. And it’s all under 1,200 mm in height. For any sports car, this is a huge challenge and a huge accomplishment. And when this car’s finally finished, it’ll answer Akio’s last request, and that is to completely redefine the sound of an electric sports car. Now, we designed this car to really speak for itself. But that’s not simply by chance, because the car you see here owes its existence to another story. And that brings me to the second tale of hum humiliation. This time on the racetrack. Now I remember Akio telling me that Nervor Ring 20 years ago he had an experience that he couldn’t forget. It wasn’t about being overtaken. It wasn’t about not coming first. Rather that he could see other manufacturers were prioritizing racing. They were using the occasion to nurture not only new technology and new products, but to nurture the people who make them. Camouflage prototypes of cars never seen before being put through their paces on the world’s most unforgiving track. As a company, Toyota at that time wasn’t even trying to build a car capable of racing the Nurbo Ring. In fact, we didn’t even have a sports car on sale. So, Akio along test alongside test driver Narisan not only ended up driving an old Supra, but doing so under the alias of Morizo, with his own unknown private racing team, Gazu Racing. Every time he yielded to yet another development prototype, it was as if they were saying, “You guys at Toyota, there’s no way you could ever build a car like this.” Well, that was then. This is now. Heat. Heat. Heat up here. So, what do you think about these? The GRGT and its race car sibling, the GRGT3, will be joined by the allnew Lexus LFA concept here to form the sports car Apex for both Lexus and GR. All from one racebred platform true to GR’s promise of pushing the limits for better and contributing to the entire Toyota group and all part of Akio’s promise of no more boring cars. Now the GT3 category where these the story of these three cars begins is all about making cars for people who want to win for professionals and also privateeer racers. For everybody it all starts with speed. Without speed there’s nothing. for the GRT3 race car. 4 L V8 twin turbo engine, completely rigid aluminium space frame, an incredibly low center of gravity, state-of-the-art aerodynamics, all the critical elements are in place. But speed in itself is not everything. The race is much more than the home straight. And the real art is how you control that speed. In a real life situation, as our master driver Morizo likes to say, it all comes down to Kaiwa. The conversation between driver and car. GT3 is engineered to give you confidence in all situations to feel reassured that the conversation even at the limits in the severest of situations it’s all about the car giving you the feedback that you need to guide you in making split-second decisions. Fluent communication. Knowing how the car will respond so that there are no misunderstandings. Bringing out the best in your abilities so you can push the car and yourself even further. The GRGT speaks to both types of driver. The professional driver and the recreational driver. Whether that’s two different people or you and your alter ego. Now, an integral part of any conversation with a car is sound. Not only during acceleration, but deceleration and braking. To understand the importance of this, look no further than 30 minutes drive from here to Fuji Speedway and the transition from the home straight into the first tight corner to break as late as possible deeper, faster, and power out with confidence following your ideal line. This may be the first time that we focus not only on the sound a car makes when you put your foot down, but the visceral guttural sound when you take your foot off. But the conversation you have on an ordinary street is different. The GRGT road car with the same V8 twin turbo but with hybrid power shares the DNA of its racing counterpart more than any other car we’ve ever made. For this the team worked not only at the limits of a car but at the limits of the development process. Production car test drivers working hand in hand with racing drivers. This is a circuit ready everyday driver. Wild on the track day. Easy to drive around town. Take it for a stint at the track. Stop at a nice restaurant on the way home. From dynamics all the way down to minute decisions in seating position. This is a car designed to cover all the bases. Nario loves motorsports. In a race team, there is no hierarchy. When it comes down to it, everyone is in the pits together. These three cars will work as a team to bring the emotion of driving to both veteran racers, a new generation of car lovers. Whether it’s the V8 twin turbo in the GRGT3 or the hybrid version in the GRGT, both running on either conventional fuel or e fuel, or an electric future in the LFA, these cars represent a commitment to keep the joy of driving at the limits of human capabilities alive for the next generation, nurturing technology and people to create a new era of driving euphoria. Just as Narosis brought his wisdom from the Toyota 2000 GT to the LFA and passed it on to a new generation of test drivers. Ladies and gentlemen, over the last 14 years, not only Lexus and GR, but all Toyota Group brands have undergone a transformation. The emotional side has come back to the company. Whether that’s in terms of driving dynamics, engineering, production or my field of design. There’s been a fundamental change in the country company mindset. How a car looks, how it feels, it’s all subjective. But in the pits, as one team with Akio as master driver, we have the license to do what needs to be done to translate each car’s story into reality. And even though he’s push pushing 70 this year, Akio Toyota went back to where it all began 20 years ago, driving in the Nurburg Ring 24 hours. And I can guarantee one thing. With these three cars in front of him, he’ll not be able to stay away for many years to come. And equally, there was no way he could miss the chance to be here today. Ladies and gentlemen, Akio Toyota. 30 years ago, Naruan and I, just the two of us were making cars. Little by little, like-minded members joined the effort and finally when the LFA was completed, Narusan in a big smile that I’ve never seen before said, “It’s the first time I was able to drive Newberg rink just looking ahead. Till then we were constantly being overtaken by other cars and now we had a car to overtake others.” I could feel how truly happy he was. That didn’t mean that our kuashisa or humiliation went away. LFA went to volume production, but it was a limited volume production. We started to win races, but it was about becoming first ranking class. There was still many, many cars that was faster than us. I could hear people saying, “No way that you guys at Toyota could build a car like this.” I will never forget that feeling of humiliation. And that pain is definitely the force that drives me even now. And one day, 15 years ago, suddenly I succeeded the role of master driver. Naruan left me with the secret sauce for making cars. The sauce we made from our pain of humiliation. There was another thing that he left me which were a few fellow colleagues who shared that agony. We used that pain and frustration as our driving force and continued our focus on simply making ever better cars. The GR GR 86 GR Supra GR Yaris GR Yaris GR Cora GR Corolla the hydrogen engine super taq super taq new ring and now these cars at Toyota today I now have so many like-minded fellow colleagues who are making cars with a shared conviction To these fellow colleagues, I want to entrust our car making endeavor and I want to work together with these fellows to make cars so that our secret sauce can be passed on to the future generations and I hope you can continue to count on us to that we will keep you excited. My life has been a continuation of battles and the role that I found through those battles is to be the last person to protect the others. not my role as president or chairman, but to make sure that my fellow colleagues can evacuate to a safe place so that they will be able to hone their skills and be able to fight back even stronger. I’m the one who will protect them so make sure that they will be able to have that environment. Moro will still continue and stay up and running until I fall down. Thank you so much for coming today.

See the world premiere of the Lexus LFA Concept—a battery electric vehicle (BEV) sports car concept model.

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