What are BMW & Toyota up to?

BMW and Toyota are currently working together, but better yet, they’re working on producing a midsize sports car. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, please check out our previous article about this amazing project.

Most of us think that Toyota is pretty good at making cars for the average Joe, the nine to fiver, essentially taking people from point A to point B. However, Toyota is really good at making sports cars. Remember the early Toyota 2000GT in the 1960s? (shown below):

To the Supra in 1980s and 1990s:

and the most recent: Toyota’s first supercar – the Lexus LFA.

For BMW, we all know it’s famous for its sports oriented car...

In part 1, we reviewed the body construction of the LFA. Now let us take a look at its heart – the 1LR-GUE 4.8L V10 engine.

Some may criticize it does not has fuel direct injection. However let’s see what is the benefit of using direct injection.

By using direct injection, the internally sprayed liquid fuel can lower the cylinder’s temperature, therefore lower the possibility that the fuel to be ignited by the high engine temperature. Therefore, a higher cylinder compression ratio can be utilized, and the higher compression ratio can thus raises the output and lower fuel consumption...

Index

Why the Lexus LFA is a special supercar – part 1 (carbon fiber technology)
Why the Lexus LFA is a special supercar – part 2 (engine)

When the Lexus LFA went on sale in late 2010 and early 2011, some of its specifications seem to be outdated: for example its V10 engine still uses traditional port injection for the fuels, while the 10-times-cheaper IS250 has already incorporated fuel direct injection for 4 years; and also the LFA is using a single clutch 6 speed automated sequential transmission, while there are plenty of sports cars using a more advanced double clutch transmission.

These indeed are shortcomings of the LFA, caused by the lengthy development cycle ...