The Lexus LFA So Rare Only Two Were Built

Only 500 examples of the Lexus LFA were produced when Lexus was manufacturing its hallowed supercar. Given the number that has been crashed, abused, or defiled, the number of clean examples left is less than that, explaining why they routinely sell for north of $800,000.

Each of those 500 Lexus LFA supercars was configured as a coupe. The world never had any other configuration available. However, before the production LFA debuted, Lexus toyed with creating a roadster version. It may have never reached production, but two functional prototypes were born, making them the rarest of an already rare and expensive breed.

The Rarest Lexus LFAs Ever Made

Chances are you’ve never heard of or seen the Lexus LFA Spider, and we don’t blame you. Only two were ever built – one white and one yellow – and they’ve hardly ever been seen in public. Even Lexus and Toyota don’t keep many photos of the two prototypes on file, and those that do exist aren’t of the highest quality. However, the two that were built have been known to show face from time to time as part of museum exhibits, parades, and on one occasion, when Jay Leno got the opportunity to drive one.

There are also no official specifications published anywhere, although aside from its curb weight, there’s no reason to believe Lexus would deviate from the regular LFA. You still had the same front-mid-mounted V10 displacing 4.8 liters and churning out 552 horsepower and 354 lb-ft of torque, but without a roof, the LFA Spider means you can hear the V10 shriek in HD.

Visually, there was little difference between the LFA Spider and the production coupe, and Lexus effected minimal changes to the bodywork to remove the roof and replace it with a power-operating fabric top. Part of the reason for this was the LFA’s remarkable carbon fiber chassis.

Both prototypes were built early in the LFA’s production run, specifically in 2010 when they were likely modified from early verification and tooling prototypes. But the story of the LFA Spider predates this, as Toyota and Lexus had always toyed with the concept of an open-top supercar.

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The Concept That Previewed The Rarest LFA Variant

Perfection takes time, and the development process of the Lexus LFA is a testament to that. Lexus began developing the LFA in 2000, and by 2001, its iconic V10 engine was already being developed. That same year, Haruhiko Tanahashi hired Toyota Motor Corporation’s seasoned driver, the late Hiromu Naruse, to iron out the qualities and needs of the automaker’s future supercar. By 2002, Akio Toyoda was brought into the fold to influence the higher-ups and helped sway the board of directors at the Toyota Motor Corporation to greenlight the development team’s wishes.

The original prototype of the Lexus LFA was completed halfway through 2003. The first design study was unveiled in 2005 at the Detroit Motor Show, with the team announcing the first rough details and goals of the Lexus LFA to the world. A second concept, unveiled in 2007, was much closer to the final product than the first, showcasing a more final front-mid engine placement, and crucially, switching from an aluminum frame to a carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) one that resulted in a lower curb weight and a stiffer body.

In 2008, at the now-defunct Geneva Motor Show, Lexus unveiled a third iteration of the LFA concept, this time dubbed the LF-A Roadster (red car above). The point behind it was to showcase the robustness of a carbon fiber chassis, allowing the roof to be taken off without compromising structural rigidity. While ultimately, Lexus never pursued a production version like it did the coupe, the adaptive rear spoiler from this version of the concept went on to feature on the production supercar.

It’s clear that someone within the ranks of Lexus and Toyota wanted the LFA to be a convertible, too. Why else would there be two convertible prototypes based on the final production design? So why did it never actually enter production?

Why It Never Went Into Production

In a tale as old as time, we now look back fondly on the LFA, despite initial reviews being highly critical of it for a number of reasons. Its uniqueness, rarity, and that glorious V10 make it something special that has never been repeated since and likely never will, and prices have already doubled, making it a smart investment too. So if the LFA proved to be such a success in the long run, surely a convertible variant would’ve been a shoo-in for production? Well, not quite. Because of the early criticism surrounding the LFA, it didn’t prove as popular as Lexus had initially hoped. It was also hampered by its exotic construction, which was something Toyota had little to no in-house experience with, making it a costly thing to produce.

While the LFA boasted of a carbon fiber chassis, the Motomachi Plant where it was produced had no experience working with composites. Because of this, the pre-production development time increased significantly. Pair that with the fact that the Lexus LFA program racked up a total R&D cost somewhere in the region of $1 billion, and it’s not hard to see why the bean counters at Toyota wouldn’t want to invest further in the project. The high costs didn’t end there. When it debuted, the Lexus LFA was sold for $375,000 in the United States, but each example of the Lexus LFA cost roughly $750,000 to produce, meaning a loss was made on every car built, all for he sake of having a halo for the brand.

Ultimately, the exorbitant costs needed to develop and produce the Lexus LFA would be one of the reasons why the Lexus LFA was never offered in the open-top configuration.

The LFA Spider Wasn’t The First Time Toyota Built A Custom, Open-Top Sports Car

The LFA was a daring project for Lexus and Toyota, and the two Spider prototypes arguably an even greater undertaking, but this wasn’t the first time Toyota had committed to such. While the LFA is often viewed in isolation, it’s impossible not to draw parallels between it and the Toyota 2000GT, the original Toyota sports car and, like the LFA, one that was only sold as a coupe. But did you know that Toyota built two custom 2000GTs with a convertible roof?

These were special commissions for the production of the James Bond film You Only Live Twice. Toyota had been tapped to supply Bond’s car for the film, but Sean Connery, who played Bond at the time, was too tall to fit into the Japanese sports car properly. Originally, a targa version was considered to circumvent this, but it’s reported that at 6-foot-2, Connery’s head stuck out of the roof, which looked awkward on camera. Instead, Toyota custom-made two open-top versions, taking just two weeks to fabricate them. The irony here is that Connery was never actually pictured driving the car in the film; it was only driven by “Bond girl” Aki (played by Akiko Wakabayashi).

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The models used in the film were equipped with an array of Sony electronics, including CCTV, a VCR, cameras behind the front number plate, a voice-controlled tape recorder, an audio system, and even two-way radios. These were special models, the only examples ever to feature an open-top configuration, but that wouldn’t stop them from disappearing. Reportedly, one of the cars was wrecked in the 1970s, but it’s rumored that the company responsible for disposing of the Toyota 2000GT Roadsters sold one of the models to a private buyer. The other roadster model was found in Hawaii in 1977, brought back to Japan, and restored. The Toyota 2000GT Roadster is being kept at the Toyota Museum and is regarded as one of the most valuable models in the museum’s vast collection.

Sources: Lexus, Jay Leno’s Garage, Toyota, Toyota Automobile Museum