This Owner Thought He Improved His 2012 Lexus LFA’s Exhaust Sound, Gets Instantly Humbled By The Internet
The Lexus LFA’s 4.8-liter V10 is widely considered one of the best-sounding engines ever fitted to a road car, and Lexus spent years engineering that sound. One owner still believed he could do better, swapping the factory exhaust for an expensive aftermarket system.
The internet’s verdict was swift and nearly unanimous, humbling the owner soon after he announced the modification to his Japanese supercar. This is a man who thrashed his Sterrato immediately after taking delivery, and once drifted his Pagani through the snow, so he’s no stranger to backlash, but the reaction to this swap was different. Even his closest friends called it “sacrilegious.”
Why The Lexus LFA’s V10 Sound Is Untouchable
Lexus built just 500 LFAs between 2010 and 2012, each priced at $375,000 when new. Even at that price, the company lost money on every car, since the LFA was built as a halo car rather than a profit maker. Slow sales left four brand-new examples still waiting for their first owners as late as 2019.
Its 4.8-liter V10, co-developed with Yamaha, makes 553 hp and 354 lb-ft of torque, and it revs to 9,000 rpm so quickly that Lexus fitted a digital tachometer to keep up. That engine sends the LFA from 0 to 60 mph in 3.6 seconds and on to a 202 mph top speed.
Yamaha usually gets the credit for the LFA’s famous wail, but its music division only tuned the intake. Japanese automotive exhaust specialist Sango is the company that developed the exhaust. Lexus engineers also studied Formula 1 cars at full revs and chose the V10’s 72-degree bank angle partly for its sound. The result puts the LFA alongside the Porsche Carrera GT in any debate about the best-sounding car ever made.
Supercar Ron Bought His Second LFA And Straight Piped The Exhaust
The owner behind the modification is Supercar Ron, a Utah-based YouTuber whose collection includes a Pagani and a 1999 Nissan Skyline GT-R V-Spec in Midnight Purple. This is his second LFA, as he sold his first, also red, after a buyer offered him substantially more than he paid. He missed the car’s sound, so when a friend found this example for what Ron called a deal too good to be true, he bought it.
The LFA made its public debut at The Quail during Monterey Car Week, riding on polished BBS LM wheels that Ron believes are a first for the car. Few people took issue with the wheels, which he calls his favorite design of all time.
The aftermarket exhaust went on before the car shipped from Pebble Beach to Utah, so Ron spent very little time with the stock system. He stresses the exhaust wasn’t cheap and came from a supplier he would gladly work with again, though he has never revealed the name. That silence left plenty of viewers guessing about what had actually been bolted to one of Japan’s most celebrated supercars.
How The Internet Humbled Ron’s LFA
The backlash began as soon as Ron posted a clip of the LFA roaring through a tunnel in Monterey. Comments like “Stock exhaust sounds much better” and “I’m sorry but it genuinely sounds bad” each pulled in well over 1,500 likes. One viewer joked about throwing out the stock exhaust for “pipes used for plumbing,” while another compared the mod to climate activists throwing paint on art.
Ron’s own friends weren’t any kinder, calling the exhaust sacrilegious and saying he had ruined the car. One pointed out that the LFA was tuned with help from people who build musical instruments, while another compared the swap to kicking the saxophone player out of a band for a didgeridoo. The sharpest line likened it to painting eyebrows on the Mona Lisa, since Ron hadn’t made the car better, just louder.
The new exhaust has also triggered a check engine code, and Ron now calls the swap “the worst mistake I’ve ever made with a car.” He admits this reaction felt different from the heat he took for drifting his Pagani in the snow, so he apologized to his viewers on his channel and returned the LFA to its stock exhaust. As Ron put it himself, most cars can be improved sound-wise, but the LFA simply isn’t one of them.
Source: Supercar Ron
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