Lexus LFR: Everything We Know About The Lexus LFA Successor

It’s one of the worst-kept secrets in the car industry that Toyota is working on a spiritual successor to the legendary Lexus LFA. This new machine will be a front-engined GT car built to serve as a homologation platform for Gazoo Racing’s upcoming GT3 car.

We know the car is likely to be powered by a twin-turbo V8, and that it’s rumoured to be badged as the Lexus LFR despite earlier suggestions it’d use Toyota branding, but other details are still murky. We’ve pieced together everything we know about this mysterious project below.

The racing version

The whole reason this car exists is that Toyota needs a new GT3 race car. GT3 – pretty much the most popular ruleset for sports car racing around the world – requires its cars to be based on road-going machines. Toyota’s current entry, the Lexus RC-F GT3, has been racing since 2017 and is based on a road car that’s now 10 years old.

The thing is, there’s nothing within the Toyota or Lexus brands that would otherwise work as a platform. The Lexus LC is probably too big and that’s just finished production, while the GR Supra is about to gracefully bow out with a GT4-inspired special edition.

It appears, then, that Toyota has decided to follow the example set by the Maserati MC12 and second-generation Ford GT – producing a road car with the express purpose of having something to base the race car on.

We’ve already had a glimpse at what it might look like when Toyota showed off the GR GT3 concept in 2022. Since then, that concept’s popped up at a couple of events wearing Lexus badges, and right now, most rumours point to the final car being called the Lexus LFR.

The racing version has been spotted testing at tracks in Europe and Japan, and although it’s hard to get a handle on details, it looks broadly similar to the concept. Its exhaust note seems to all but confirm that it’ll use a twin-turbo V8, too.

The road version

GT3 rules mean a road-going version of this car is pretty much a done deal, and there have been various hints that it’s coming, too. In 2022, Toyota filed patent drawings in Europe of the GR GT3 concept, shorn of its enormous rear wing but still wearing some very aggressive aero lower down.

Earlier this year, it also trademarked the name 'GR GT', creating rumours that this might be the car's name, but Lexus LFR now seems the more likely candidate. Oh, and if you really want to believe the hype, a ‘GR GT3’ was one of the various models hinted at by Toyota’s in-house anime series.

In summer 2024, a wingless version of the GR GT3 prototype was spotted running around Fuji Speedway, prompting suggestions that this was the road car. Some rumours suggest that the production version’s V8 will have some hybrid assistance.

Then, in autumn 2024, another possible roadgoing prototype – this time sporting a wing – was seen by Carscoops at the Nürburgring. It apparently clocked the car moving off silently from standstill, adding further fuel to the rumours that the road car will be a hybrid.

Japanese outlet Best Car has further reaffirmed this, suggesting that the LFR will use a 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 paired with a version of Lexus’ Multi-Stage Hybrid system, for a total output of around 888bhp.

The Electrified Sport Concept

Complicating matters somewhat is another concept car, revealed at the end of 2021. Called the Lexus Electrified Sport Concept, it was one of 15 electric concept cars debuted by Toyota in one go.

With its long-bonneted, cab-rearward proportions and slender lighting designs, it’s visually similar to the GR GT3 concept, although clearly a totally different design.

At the time, Toyota hinted that most of these concepts were previewing production cars, although only one has come to light in full EV form so far – the bZ4X crossover – and we know the company is hesitant about going all-in on electric power. It’s nevertheless spurred no shortage of rumours that a fully electric Lexus supercar is on the way.

Whether this is still happening, and whether it’s happening alongside the LFR, is entirely unclear. If it is under development, it’s likely to be much further off than the V8 car.

When will we see the LFR?

Currently, it’s expected that the racing version of the LFR will be ready for the start of the 2026 racing season. A logical competition debut for it would be that year’s 24 Hours of Daytona, which takes place in either late January or early February every year.

Best Car reckons that the road-going version could be unveiled as early as the Tokyo Auto Salon in January 2025 – where Toyota is also rumoured to be debuting a new Celica – and go into production in October next year. We don’t have long to wait to see if that’s true, but either way, a full reveal at some point within the next 12 months seems all but certain.