The Secret Of The Tiffany-Blue LFA, Or How Those Auto Spy Stories Are Written

A mysterious Lexus LFA that went from Motomachi to (the green) hell is fueling the fantasy of bloggers. Some say the Tiffany-blue bolide belongs to the Sheikh of Qatar, who just happens to like his cars in Tiffany blue. Others say it is the LFA going out with a bang, attacking the elusive Nordschleife ring record one last time "with an engine over 600 bhp." They all made it up. This is not a story about the LFA. It is a story about bloggers sucking stories out of their thumbs. Lexus LFA Picture courtesy Autoblog.com Most of the blogs that expect traffic from the topic make you feel like they are camped out on the Ring, ready to snap the latest and fastest Erlkönig. They aren't, and I don't blame them. Having spent much too many rainy days at the abominable Lindner Congress Hotel, I can assure you that there are better things to do with your time. Except for specialty site BridgeToGantry.com, nobody covers the Ring 24/7, most of the writers don't even know the difference between Nurburgring and Nurnberg. BridgeToGantry covers the Ring, because its editor Dale Lomas works there. At rent4ring, he rents out track day cars, from a Suzuki Swift Stage 1 all the way to a Caterham R300 (pray it won't rain.) All good websites get their pictures from SB-Medien, the not so good ones steal them from the websites that got their pics from SB-Medien. SB-Medien is Europe's leading purveyor of Erlkönig imagery. SB is said to have a mutually beneficial relationship with automakers. Automakers can create buzz at just the right time. SB can position a photographer at just the right time and place. Everybody wins. Nobody wastes time and money. Lexus LFA Picture courtesy Gmotors.co.uk And this is how the Tiffany blue LFA story got started. A few days ago, SB sent out a set of baby blue LFA pictures to its subscribers. One of the first if not the first to publish was GMotors.co.uk, but only because they "spent only 20 minutes to put the so-called spy photos up," as editor Andrew Baker (a.k.a. Andrus Kiisküla) refreshingly admits. Those 20 minutes were spent splashing a giant "Gmotors.co.uk" onto the image, and writing a 173 word ditty. Gmotors' ditty was restrained. They said that "Lexus is very likely going to introduce a new special edition of their LFA supercar, and that Gmotors "wouldn't be surprised if this new model has over 600bhp." Fair enough. Put yourself in the shoes of a poor, underpaid (or pro bono) writer who stares at a set of blue pictures, and nothing elese to go on. Your choices are: Copypaste. Make it up. All of the above. At Autoevolution.com, the baby blue car turns into an "LFA Tokyo Edition." Our friends at Carbuzz remember how they "almost made a mess in our pants" when they had seen the Nurburgring Edition LFA, and that "Lexus is apparently planning a new version of their LFA supercar." Motortrend takes a quick toke and writes: "Our automotive paparazzo on Europe recently caught this modified teal blue Lexus LFA lapping the Green Hell." Autoblog gives the car "a fair bit more than the 552 horsepower found in the standard LFA." Once the story hits Motorauthority, the car has received an engine that is "pumping out significantly more than the 552-horsepower 4.8-liter V-10 found in the regular LFA." Also, it has received a transmission that "is likely to have been reprogrammed for faster shifts." And on and on it goes as the story ricochets around the blogosphere. The definitely last word in supposition and innuendo is written by the Kaizen Factor. Half serious, half tongue-in-cheek, the site lists every rumor the Tiffany blue triggered, from the meaning of the AD-A letters on the side, and the "DAU 0680" on the LFA's red "Überführungsnummer", to the credible theory that the Qatari House of Thani wants to enlarge its already sizable collection of baby blue cars. Shame on Qatar (if the baby blue rumor is true): They own chunks of Volkswagen and Porsche, and now they fraternize with Toyota? Nobody bothers to do the obvious: Check the story. None except BridgeToGanrty. Dale Lomas grabs his camera, walks over from his office to the Ring and shoots a video of the blue LFA that is still making the rounds during what seems to be Touristenfahrten times. However, he can only add moving pictures, again, there is no hard information. With all options exhausted, it's time for the last resort in newsgathering: Pick up the phone, call Toyota. When I call them, they have never heard of the baby blue LFA. I send them a few links, now they have. They promise to ask around, and an hour later, Toyota spokesman Joichi Tachikawa says that "this test was part of the many research activities" Lexus conducts, never mind the fact that the LFA production is going into its home stretch and won't extend beyond 2012. hat means that at least the House of Thani theory is debunked. The rest of the fantastic prose is debunked also, as my contact convincingly claims that no detail was ever released. As far as the LFA is concerned, I am sorry that I leave you as smart as before, However, you have learned one thing: How not to write supercar stories. from The Truth About Cars http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com

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