Just like the Bugatti Veyron, the Lexus LFA isn’t a standard production car. And just like the Veyron, the LFA’s maintenance doesn’t fall under traditional service requirements. The Japanese automaker revealed as much, saying that servicing an LFA is more like servicing a race car than a standard production model.

There are certain elements that illustrate exactly how meticulous it is to service a Lexus LFA. That’s all part of the saying that the pricier and rare the car is, the more complicated it is to maintain. The 500-run LFA fits in that mold, and to our good fortune, Lexus U.K.’s own LFA media unit was scheduled to have its servicing, and the company decided to give us a detailed walkthrough on the process involving the supercar’s maintenance program.

Peter Dresen, the Workshop Manager at the LFA Center of Excellence at Toyota Motorsport GmbH in Cologne, Germany, oversees all the maintenance work on all European-spec units of the LFA. As each LFA is scheduled for a major service every three years, there’s no shortage of activity as far as this process goes.

“We treat an LFA more or less like a Le Mans car,” Dresen said. “The principles of servicing it are the same as a normal Lexus road car, but it’s quite a lot more complicated to do certain things and access certain parts. So in reality, the LFA is closer to a racing car in terms of how we take care of it.”

The first thing engineers and maintenance workers do is remove all the panels that surround specific parts on the car, including the suspension, steering system, and subframe. This process also involves checking and re-checking each nut and bolt that’s used in keeping the panels together. The meticulous nature of the inspections extends to the brake discs and pads, all of which are also removed and carefully inspected by hand to check for any tiny cracks in the carbon-ceramic material. The brake discs, in particular, are also weighed to ensure that it’s within specific wear limits. Lexus even uses an actual X-Ray machine to check these same discs and pads for any potential internal issues that can’t be seen by the naked eye. Should there be an issue with these parts, Lexus immediately replaces them with brand new units.

The incredible attention-to-detail also extends to the LFA’s body, which is largely composed of carbon fiber-reinforced polymer. Given the fact that the use of the exotic material is one of the LFA’s calling cards, it goes without saying that there’s a level of importance that goes into ensuring that the body remains in excellent shape and free of any damages, no matter how small and minuscule they might be. In the case of Lexus U.K.’s media unit, the unit was discovered to have issues with an internal seal on the oil pump. To address the issue, workers at TMG removed the step-up gearbox and transmission in order to address the problem.

Even a process as seemingly mundane as an oil change is taken to extraordinary levels. It’s the same story with other traditional maintenance aspects of the supercar, including changing the oil filter, air filter, and air-conditioning filter. High-tech equipments are used to the extent that they’re needed.

All in all, maintenance work on one unit of the LFA takes roughly around four days. That includes a handful of test drives, including one around the TMG building and another on public roads. The third test drive takes place on the Autobahn at a distance of six miles.

The steps and processes that are taken sound like normal maintenance work. Rest assured, though, there’s nothing normal about servicing a limited-run supercar that’s been around for eight years now.

References

Read our full review on the 2011 Lexus LFA.

Read our full review on the 2012 Lexus LF-A Nurburgring Package.

Read more Lexus news.