Hybrids and diesels and battery-powered runabouts are all well and good, but no Detroit Show would be complete without a little internally-combusted conspicuous consumption. And few cars on the floor at Cobo Hall seemed quite as conspicuous as the candy-apple red LF-A Roadster from Lexus. Definitely not your dentist's sedate SC430, the open-topped LF-A, like the coupe version that is soon to debut in production form, rolls with a 500-horsepower, front-mid-mounted 5.0-liter V-10, which drives the rear wheels through a sequential-manual transmission (an eight-speed, doubtless, and rear-mounted for better fore/aft weight distribution). The body and chassis structure are constructed of a combination of carbon fiber composite and aluminum for high strength and low weight. Lexus claims the car is capable of speeds in excess of 200 mph. Fortunately, there's a big, automatically deployed wing on the decklid to help things planted at speed, à la the similarly capable Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren Roadster.
More photos of the LF-A after the break, courtesy of Lexus.
