Jeremy Clarkson, renowned for his roles on Top Gear and The Grand Tour, has disclosed that his favourite car of all time is not a German marque but the Japanese Lexus LFA. In a podcast interview with Autocar, he admitted the LFA still captivates him, and he would love to own one.
A Car That Lives in His Head
Speaking on the podcast earlier this year, Clarkson said: “An LFA still lives in my head as a car I’d love to own. They’re just pre ‘peak car’.” He added: “When the LFA came out, the reviews were kind of… nobody got excited by it. And then I drove it, and I was priapic.”
He described the engine sound as like “a ‘wounded bear’… a wailing noise… I thought ‘oh my god this is just absolute joy’… That’s a car I still treasure.”
Enduring Admiration
This is not the first time Clarkson has praised the LFA. In a 2019 interview with DRIVETRIBE, when asked if it was the best car he’d ever driven, he replied: “Yes, still is. The Lexus LFA because of the noise it makes principally. Millions of faults in it, you can’t do the seatbelt up, fuel tanks’ too small, all sorts of things wrong with it. But because of the noise it makes that V10 sound was spine tingling and you don’t get that from electric cars.”
Thoughts on Top Gear's Future
Despite his farming exploits, Clarkson still follows motoring shows. Recently, he commented on a potential Top Gear revamp, telling The Times: “It will work if they do it right. There is an opening for someone to review electrical cars because no one really understands them. I’m not going to watch it but there are lots of people who do want to know about all these Chinese cars because it’s all completely changing. They should do it as a consumer programme, which would be quite a ballsy thing to do because no one wants to go back to the Seventies. Like What Car? magazine on television.”
