It is quite common knowledge in the automotive industry at the moment that BMW and Toyota are currently working on a joint sports car. Up until this point, it was speculated the joint sports car would be produce in a similar vein to the Toyota GT86/Subaru BRZ albeit a bit more potent and expensive.
Now however, reports have emerged suggesting that the collaboration could result in the production of a Lexus LFA successor. This new Japanese/German supercar could pick up from where the Lexus LFA left off and borrow many of its breakthrough technologies.
One feature that the Toyota/BMW supercar won’t recycle is the LFAs 4.8-liter V10 engine. With Ferrari and McLaren recently venturing down the hybrid path and the rival Nissan GT-R set to feature a hybrid system by 2016, the LFA successor is pinned to go down the same road.
It is currently speculated that the Lexus LFA successor could utilise the carbon fiber frame of the recently revealed BMW i8 sports car. With Toyota being a front-runner in terms of producing hybrid powertrains, they would inevitably provide such a system while BMW could supply a similar 4.4-liter V8 twin-turbo engine as found in the BMW M5.
If that were the case, then the 560hp engine of the M5 mated with a hybrid powertrain possibly delivering around 200 hp would be more than enough to produce a fitting LFA successor.
Initial Lexus LFA successor rumours from a while back suggested that car would be twice as powerful as the LFA and twice as expensive, but those rumours quickly died down. It is likely that these rumours are equally unfounded but we can only dream!
[Via Motoring]
