Toyota V10

Nine years in development by Toyota and Yamaha, the 9000-rpm engine for Lexus' new LFA supercar boasts an abundance of titanium and a unique counterbalancer system.

The most exotic car of the Lexus brand, the LFA supercar, “had a strange beginning-one unheralded at Toyota,” Chief Engineer Haruhiko Tanahashi reminisced. “It all began as a very personal project of a small sports car, planned and developed in a sort of skunk works if ever there was one in our company.”

“We are basically earnest and serious people, cherishing the idealism of the founder Kiichiro Toyota, who advocated the ‘automobile for the good of the society and people,’” Tanahashi continued. “But we love cars and we wanted to let people enjoy them.”