Remember the million-dollar Lexus LFA super car?
I do. In fact, I’ve got vivid memories of flogging one around Fuji Speedway in Japan around 2013.
I also recall an earlier drive somewhere in Australia, but that drive wasn’t nearly as exciting.
The reason I mention LFA is that professional celebrity Paris Hilton has one of the cars, or at least she once had one, because it’s currently for sale in the United States — it could be yours for just $495,000 US dollars.
Apparently, Hilton was given a yellow LFA by her boyfriend of the time (no, not the one in the home movie) for her 30th birthday.
They broke up soon afterwards, but she liked the car and decided to trade it for this pearl white example.
Hilton reportedly kept the LFA for a few years, before dumping it for a McLaren 650S Spider (when you’re loaded you can do things like that).
But let’s talk about me and the LFA.
Lexus built just 500 of these incredible cars between 2010 and 2012, 10 of which found their way to Australia — and they’re all numbered.
The Hilton car is #108.
I don’t remember the number of the car I drove. I was more interested in the way it performed.
My car wasn’t any old LFA either, but a super duper Nurburgring special edition with 420kW of power, or 570 horsepower in the old money — more power than your average V8 supercar.
Only 50 LFAs with the Nurburgring Package were produced, a lighter more focused track model with power boosted from 412 to 420kW and sitting 10mm lower, with a larger fixed wing and deeper front air dam.
Regardless, the LFA spins out to 9000 revs in the blink of an eye and sprints from rest to 100km/h in just 3.7 seconds.
Long and sleek, the 4.8-litre, mid-mounted V10 in the LFA is paired with a six-speed sequential auto, with paddle shifters, 20 inch alloys and huge, carbon-ceramic brakes.
It spools up so quickly in fact, that it required a special digital tacho just to keep up — an analogue unit couldn’t cut it.
It sounds amazing too.
What was Hilton thinking? Why would you get rid of a car like this?
We’ve driven many fast and expensive cars over the years, but the LFA is right up there with the best of them.
Still, when your speed is topping 250km/h screaming down the home straight at Fuji and the sign warning brake flashes into view, it’s hard not to jump on the brakes — and jump hard — before the tight right-hander waiting at the end arrives.
It’s a confidence thing, and the more I drove the LFA, the more my confidence grew, then just as quickly as it began my time in the LFA was over — fortunately without incident.
An “off” in this car would have been expensive, not to mention the embarrassment of being the guy who trowelled the LFA — no sir, I wasn’t going there.
You get what you pay for and the LFA makes average drivers look like superstars, sitting low and flat through corners with effortless acceleration and prodigious levels of mid-corner grip.
Make no mistake, this is a thoroughbred.
It’s a car built for the track and one that has had its fair share of success at the Nurburgring.
But I digress.
In case you’re interested, the Hilton LFA can be found at Marshall Goldman Motor Sales, in Cleveland, Ohio.
It’s travelled only 4000 miles (about 6500km) and is finished in Pearl White.
It’s one five LFAs currently for sale in the US, but there’s nothing like the cult of celebrity to add value to a car.
CHECKOUT: Matter of fact I’ll have black
CHECKOUT: Lexus opens its charge account