The Lexus LFA bowed 10 years ago, but for some reason, one of the supercars showed up at the Nürburgring Nordschleife on an industry pool test day.
While we'd love to believe Lexus is hard at work on another V-10-powered supercar, or another version of the LFA, neither is likely the case. Motor1 actually spotted a similar car back in October 2018 at the 'Ring. According to the website's sources, this car, along with the LFA spotted last year, are test beds for tires.
The explanation makes sense given the LFA seen here is running wider fenders. Whatever tires are mounted on the 553-horsepower supercar, they're clearly too large to run on a standard LFA. Perhaps the better question is why Toyota or Lexus wants to test what we assume are high-performance tires. Clearly, the LFA was the best vehicle at the brand's disposal to see how the tires perform under hard driving on a notoriously difficult racetrack.
The best guess is this could be some sort of tire test for the hypercar Toyota confirmed last year that it plans to build. The car will likely use technology or even whole components or systems from its Le Mans LMP1 race car, the TS050 Hybrid Le Mans prototype. In the car, a twin-turbocharged 2.4-liter V-6 pairs with the Toyota Hybrid System-Racing (THS-R) for a combined output of 986 horsepower. All of this is purely speculation, however, aside from the fact that the Japanese automaker is, indeed, building a hypercar.
In any case, check out the video above. It's wonderful to listen to the LFA's V-10 ring out loud and proud in the hills of Germany, and you'll even spot someone giving a Bugatti Chiron a good shakedown while you're at it.