Inside the LFA Centre of Excellence
01 Apr 2014|5,847 views
The specialist facility at Toyota Motorsport's base in Cologne, Germany, is on hand to care for the 38 LFAs in Europe, including GU11VLL, the car owned by Lexus U.K. Thanks to its busy diary of journalist test drives and public displays, it's one of the hardest working LFAs of the 500 that have been built.


The rigorous programme sees the car's body panels being removed to give clear access to the suspension, steering system and subframe. Every nut and bolt is checked.
For all the LFA's technical sophistication, the human hand and eye are still essential tools, with fingertip inspection of the brake discs and pads to check for the smallest cracks in the carbon ceramic material. Should it be needed, the centre also has an X-ray system to look beneath the surface for any wear or performance issues.
Many of the routine servicing jobs are the same as for a regular car, such as replacement of the air and oil filters as well as an oil change. One that's unique to the LFA is a detailed inspection of the composite body shell, made from carbon fibre reinforced plastic.
With more than 30 years' experience as a race engineer and technician, Dresen is well-placed to give an informed verdict on the quality of the LFA, "It's a fantastic car to drive. The power and handling are incredible, but you can drive it every day - something that's not possible with some other supercars."
The specialist facility at Toyota Motorsport's base in Cologne, Germany, is on hand to care for the 38 LFAs in Europe, including GU11VLL, the car owned by Lexus U.K. Thanks to its busy diary of journalist test drives and public displays, it's one of the hardest working LFAs of the 500 that have been built.
Peter Dresen is the workshop manager who heads the centre's operations. He explained, "We treat an LFA more or less like a Le Mans car. The servicing principles are the same as for a normal Lexus road car, but it's much more complicated to do certain things and access certain parts, which makes the LFA closer to a racing car in terms of how we take care of it."
The rigorous programme sees the car's body panels being removed to give clear access to the suspension, steering system and subframe. Every nut and bolt is checked.
For all the LFA's technical sophistication, the human hand and eye are still essential tools, with fingertip inspection of the brake discs and pads to check for the smallest cracks in the carbon ceramic material. Should it be needed, the centre also has an X-ray system to look beneath the surface for any wear or performance issues.
Many of the routine servicing jobs are the same as for a regular car, such as replacement of the air and oil filters as well as an oil change. One that's unique to the LFA is a detailed inspection of the composite body shell, made from carbon fibre reinforced plastic.
With more than 30 years' experience as a race engineer and technician, Dresen is well-placed to give an informed verdict on the quality of the LFA, "It's a fantastic car to drive. The power and handling are incredible, but you can drive it every day - something that's not possible with some other supercars."
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