Jeremy Clarkson has admitted there is one car among the many thousands he's driven that he'd still love to own: the Lexus LFA. The former Top Gear and Grand Tour presenter, now known for Clarkson's Farm, made the admission on Autocar's podcast earlier this year.
Clarkson's admiration for the LFA
Clarkson first drove the V10, two-door supercar in the early 2010s and has remained enamored with it ever since. He said: "An LFA still lives in my head as a car I'd love to own. They're just pre 'peak car'. 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 "a 'wounded bear'... a wailing noise... I thought 'oh my god this is just absolute joy'... That's a car I still treasure."
Long-standing praise for the LFA
Clarkson's love for the LFA is not new. In a 2019 interview with DRIVETRIBE, he called it the best car he'd ever driven, saying: "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."
Clarkson on electric cars
Clarkson has been vocal about his lack of enthusiasm for electric vehicles, citing their silence as a major drawback. Speaking to YouTuber Harry Metcalfe, he said: "I said when I packed in The Grand Tour was that I'm just not interested in electric cars and I saw that was going to be the future.
"I thought 'how can I be enthusiastic as I drive along when the damn thing's not making any noise?' I had that electric Renault 5 the other day and I thought that was a cracking looking little car and I really liked the splashes of yellow inside. Really nicely done… if only it had an engine!"
Peak car around 2015
Clarkson has previously identified around 2015 as "peak car," explaining: "They reached a point when they had everything you could reasonably expect from a car, and now they've all gone electronic and idiotic.
"So I think about 10 years ago, if you bought a car from 10 years ago it would be reliable, comfortable, refined, well-equipped, fast, relatively economical and spectacularly green because nobody's had to build you a new car."
