Lexus LF-A Breaks Out the Battle Suit

As reported yesterday, the Lexus LF-A is out testing again. The hot news right now is the seemingly race-ready Lexus LF-A that has been hitting the Nurburgring over the past day. Armed with a host of modifications to achieve top speeds and top times, including stacked canards on the front bar which itself appears to have modified intakes, a slick big GT wing bolted to the back shelf, internally altered layout to the headlights, and slimmer carbon fibre side mirrors.

There's a bit of speculation that this may signal an intention to throw the LF-A into the deep end by entering it into the upcoming Nurburgring 24hr race—possibly using the event as an ideal time to launch the production version of the car. I can't confidently buy that scenario myself. After all, if they don't perform well in the race, it's not going to look great when they announce the production model.

I wonder what we'll be able to expect from the LF-A, cosmetically. Those headlights—despite the various internal changes—are surely for testing purposes only, and the tail lights as well are clearly nothing more than a strip of trailer lights bolted on. Will the final LF-A look more like this, or more like the familiar concept we've seen running the show circuit? If it follows the line of the latter, will the tear streaks of the concept headlights make the cut?

[via The Passionate Pursuit.]