Tag Archives: vehicles

NEW CARS

Toyota GR GT – The LFA’s Spirit Reborn, With Twin Turbos and a Jolt of Electric Fury

For more than a decade, enthusiasts have been waiting—hoping—for a true heir to the Lexus LFA. Its screaming V10, carbon-intensive construction, and unrepeatable charisma cemented it as one of the most iconic halo cars of the 21st century. Now, Toyota’s performance wing, Gazoo Racing, claims the wait is officially over. Meet the GR GT, a ground-up supercar engineered with one mission: to channel the LFA’s legacy into something even more ferocious.

A New Formula for a New Era

Rather than chase nostalgia, Gazoo Racing has built the GR GT around three uncompromising targets:
the lowest possible center of gravity, the lowest possible mass, and the highest possible chassis stiffness.
Those principles form the backbone of a brand-new aluminum architecture designed to extract every ounce of performance from an equally new powertrain.

At the front sits a freshly developed 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8, while the rear hides an electric motor mounted just above the axle. Together, they summon a combined 650 horsepower and 850 Nm of torque—numbers Toyota openly hints may creep higher by the time production begins. Power flows exclusively to the rear wheels through an 8-speed automatic transmission.

This hybrid layout isn’t about eco points; it’s about instant torque, chassis balance, and lap-time consistency. And it’s born directly from Gazoo Racing’s experience developing the GR GT3 race car, which is launching in parallel for FIA competition.

Carbon Everywhere, Mass Nowhere

Toyota set an ambitious weight target, and it shows. Every exterior panel is crafted from carbon fiber, while additional carbon elements are worked into the braking system. The supercar rolls on ultra-light 20-inch wheels wrapped in Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 rubber, ensuring grip levels that suit its GT3-inspired hardware.

Toyota says the final car will tip the scales at under 1,700 kg, an impressive feat considering its hybrid system and sizable V8.

Low, Wide, and Ready to Strike

At 4.78 meters long and just 1.09 meters high, the GR GT sits lower than almost anything on today’s roads. Unsurprisingly, slipping inside feels like dropping into a race seat—because the seats are race seats. Recaro carbon buckets, bolstered aggressively and trimmed in premium materials, dominate the cockpit. Traditional Toyota branding steps aside in favor of bold Gazoo Racing badging, signaling that this machine belongs firmly in the performance sub-brand’s domain.

320 km/h, and That’s Just the Beginning

In road-legal form, the GR GT is targeting a top speed of 320 km/h. But the real story is its dual-purpose development path. Alongside the production car, Toyota has unveiled the GR GT3 racing version, a homologation-ready weapon set to compete worldwide. This isn’t a marketing gimmick—it’s proof that the road car was shaped with motorsports as its foundation.

A Proper Successor at Last

Toyota hasn’t tried to recreate the LFA’s magic; instead, it has evolved it. A hybrid V8 instead of a shrieking V10. Carbon construction refined by modern motorsports. A chassis sculpted by engineering priorities, not nostalgia.

If the numbers hold—and if Gazoo Racing’s GT3 work really bleeds through to the street version—the GR GT might not just be a successor to the LFA. It might become the supercar that defines Toyota’s performance future.

Source: Toyota

CONCEPT CARS

Lexus LFA Concept: The V10’s Ghost Haunts Lexus’s Bold Leap Into the Electric Unknown

For more than a decade, the Lexus LFA has lived in a sacred corner of the car world—a limited-run V10 masterpiece whose wail could send shivers through carbon fiber. So when rumors began swirling about a new LFA, enthusiasts expected a familiar formula: a Lexus-flavored take on Toyota’s latest GR GT supercar, likely with a fire-breathing internal-combustion engine.

Instead, Lexus dropped a shockwave.

The new LFA Concept, unveiled in Japan alongside Toyota’s twin-turbo V8 GR GT, isn’t the next evolution of the iconic V10 halo car. It’s something far stranger—and far bolder. The LFA name now adorns an all-electric performance flagship, one Lexus says represents the technologies engineers should “preserve and pass on to the next generation.”

That’s philosophical language for a supercar with zero published specs.

A Silent Successor

Here’s what we know: Lexus isn’t ready to talk numbers. No kilowatts, no battery capacity, no performance estimates. The brand’s tight-lipped approach leaves us speculating about everything from motor count to horsepower. But Lexus seems fully aware that, no matter how potent the output, nothing it builds can replicate the original LFA’s F1-inspired shriek. Even Toyota’s new V8 can’t scratch that itch.

What makes this whole situation even more intriguing is the architecture beneath the sculpted shell. The LFA Concept rides on the same aluminum platform underpinning the GR GT and GT3 race car. Lexus almost certainly had the option to slot in Toyota’s new twin-turbo V8, yet deliberately didn’t. In a market where electric supercars struggle to find traction—and where enthusiasts still crave cylinders—this is a contrarian move.

Design First, Answers Later

While the powertrain is a mystery, the sheetmetal isn’t. The LFA Concept is gorgeous. It’s lower, sharper, and more cohesive than many EV sports concepts we’ve seen recently. Lexus clearly intends the LFA successor to stand apart from Toyota’s version, and nowhere is that clearer than the cabin. Unlike the Toyota’s more traditional cockpit, the LFA Concept interior embraces futurism—clean surfaces, minimalist interfaces, and the kind of conceptual flair you expect at an auto show, not at a dealership.

Production Bound—Eventually

Lexus isn’t playing coy about the bigger picture, though. This concept is not a design exercise destined for storage. Lexus openly acknowledges that the car is headed for production, and the renaming of last year’s “Lexus Sport Concept” to “LFA Concept” all but confirms it will wear the legendary badge when it arrives.

What Lexus won’t say is when. But given Toyota’s GR GT is expected around 2027, the LFA’s road-ready debut should follow a similar timeline—perhaps a bit later as Lexus fine-tunes the tech it hopes will define its electric future.

The Legacy Question

Will an EV ever fill the emotional void left by the original LFA’s V10—the sound, the rawness, the sense of mechanical magic? Probably not. But Lexus isn’t trying to recreate history. It’s redefining what an LFA can be, even if that means stepping into territory supercar buyers haven’t fully embraced yet.

It’s a risk. It’s unexpected. And it might just be the kind of disruptive thinking that made the first LFA legendary.

Source: Lexus

News

Mercedes’ New Axial-Flux Motor Could Make Rear Brakes Obsolete

In the EV arms race, we’ve gotten used to bold claims: record-shattering motors, range numbers that sound like wishful thinking, charging tech that promises to “change everything.” But every once in a while, something genuinely disruptive rolls onto the stage. Mercedes’ subsidiary Yasa just unveiled one of those somethings.

A month after revealing an absurdly compact, absurdly powerful 12.7-kilogram axial-flux electric motor, the company is back with a bigger, stranger, and potentially industry-shifting announcement:
This motor may allow EVs to ditch their rear brakes entirely.

A Motor That’s Lighter Than Your Backpack—and Stronger Than a Supercar

Axial-flux motors are already known for wild power density, but Yasa’s new unit raises the bar. The company claims an unofficial record of 59 kW (80 hp) per kilogram, a figure that makes most conventional EV motors look like they’re skipping leg day.

Peak output? 1,020 horsepower.
Continuous output? Between 476 and 543 hp, depending on configuration.
And it pairs with Yasa’s own 15-kg dual inverter, forming a powertrain module that seems tailor-made for next-gen hypercars.

But the real twist is where Yasa wants to put it.

The Return of the Wheel Motor — But This Time It Might Actually Work

In-wheel motors aren’t new. They’ve been teased for years but rarely adopted because they’re typically heavy, unsophisticated, and murderous to unsprung mass. Yasa thinks it has cracked that problem.

By integrating its featherweight axial motor directly into the wheel assembly, the company says it can produce so much regenerative braking that physical rear brakes may not even be necessary. Not reduced. Not downsized. Deleted.

That’s not just an engineering party trick. Eliminating rear brakes — and possibly the entire rear axle assembly in some architectures — represents a stunning weight reduction:

  • Up to 200 kg saved on current platforms
  • Up to 500 kg saved on ground-up EV designs

For context, that’s roughly the curb weight difference between a Tesla Model 3 and a base Porsche 911.

Range Gains and New Design Freedom

According to Simon Odling, Yasa’s Head of New Technologies, the breakthrough isn’t just about shedding hardware. It’s also about capturing far more energy during braking — energy that currently turns into heat in EV brake pads.

More regen means more watt-hours back into the battery and, therefore, more range. And with huge mechanical components gone, designers suddenly have real freedom: new battery pack layouts, new aerodynamic concepts, cleaner underbodies, and optimized suspension kinematics.

In other words, this isn’t just a new motor. It’s a potential shift in the EV blueprint.

Where You’ll See It First

Mercedes-AMG will be the first to deploy Yasa’s axial-flux motors in upcoming high-performance EVs — specifically the all-electric AMG GT 4-Door sedan and SUV.

But don’t expect in-wheel motors on those models. They’ll use a traditional setup: one motor up front and two out back. Yasa’s in-wheel aspirations appear aimed beyond the near-term AMG lineup, toward next-generation platforms still being developed.

The EV world has been talking about reduced mechanical complexity for a decade. Yasa wants to take that idea to its logical extreme:
Let the motor do everything.
Drive the wheels. Slow the car. Capture the energy. Save the weight.

If the technology performs in the real world the way it does on paper, the EV landscape is about to get a lot lighter, more efficient, and maybe just a little weirder — in the best possible way.

Source: Mercedes-Benz