Lexus surprised the Goodwood Festival of Speed by giving its LFA Concept electric supercar its first-ever dynamic drives, sending the still-camouflaged prototype up the famous hill climb. The appearance came 17 years after the original V10 LFA first showed at Goodwood in prototype form. The concept ran alongside GAZOO Racing’s GR GT and GR GT3 prototypes, underlining Toyota’s multipath approach to performance.
Lexus turned a static-display slot into one of the talking points of this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed. According to the company, the LFA Concept electric supercar was only scheduled to appear in the event’s Supercar Paddock, but it was added, unannounced, to the high-speed sessions on the hill climb course for its first dynamic drives.
The car still wore its camouflage wrapping as it ran up the hill in the south of England. Lexus notes that the appearance came 17 years after the original V10-powered LFA first appeared in prototype form at the same festival.
A trio from Toyota’s performance arm
The LFA Concept did not run alone. It formed a group of three high-performance cars alongside GAZOO Racing’s prototype GR GT and GR GT3, with which the company says it shares some common technologies. Taken together, Lexus presents the trio as a signal of Toyota’s multipath approach to powertrains — spanning road-going and circuit-tuned hybrid systems through to ultra-high-performance battery-electric technology.
Drivers from rally, Super GT and the Nürburgring
Driving duties over the festival’s four days (9–12 July) were shared by a line-up of racing names. They included Elfyn Evans of the Toyota Gazoo Racing World Rally Team, Toyota Racing Vice Chairman Kazuki Nakajima, and development driver Hiroaki Ishiura, who works on the GR GT, GR GT3 and LFA Concept. Four-time Super GT champion Sho Tsuboi, Super GT driver Yuichi Nakayama and German racing driver and Nürburgring specialist Uwe Kleen also took turns behind the wheel.
What it means
Lexus describes the LFA Concept as its vision for a next-generation electric sports car, one meant to blend advanced performance with emotional appeal while invoking the spirit of the original LFA. Seeing a camouflaged prototype run in public — rather than sit on a stand — suggests the project is moving beyond the show-car stage, though Lexus has not confirmed production plans, technical specifications or a timeline.
No power, battery, range or performance figures were released with the announcement. For now, the Goodwood runs serve mainly as a first public demonstration that the electric successor to the LFA can move under its own power.
Source: newsroom.lexus.eu