Take two superb automotive exports from the land of the rising sun, mash them together with the ingenuity only a Japanese petrolhead can muster and what do you get? The DAMD, Lexus LFA bodied, Toyota 86. This visual package from DAMD actually wears the name the LFT-86.
Why spend R3.5-million plus on a Lexus LFA supercar (which you can’t buy new anymore) when for a tenth of the price you could have a rear-wheel drive machine that delivers plenty of fun,and looks virtually the same (assuming you have an ambitious cross-eyed squint)? Should the DAMD creation be met with ‘damn’ in a good way, or should it be consigned to the ‘damned’ pile of other awful body-kitted cars? We can’t really make up our minds.
As you might expect for the Toyota 86, which is quickly becoming the darling of the tuning scene in Japan, there are hundreds of different styling kits starting to appear. The DAMD 86-meets-Lexus-LFA creation, does have a unique concept behind it though. Normally, converting a cheap car to look like an expensive one is worthy of instant unfriending on Facebook, however, what DAMD has achieved is so impeccably well executed, you can’t but tip your cap to them.
DAMD have replicated every detail of the LFA to fit almost perfectly on the 86, including: the same front fenders and bumpers as the LFA; the front fog lights; extra intake beneath the front bonnet line; side skirts; and even the distinctive rear bumper with tri-exhaust pipe layout.
If the Toyota 86 weren’t such a great car to drive and the Lexus LFA weren’t such a rare and exclusive beast, we might consign the DAMD LFT-86 to the ‘damned’ pile, like the countless Toyota MR2s that have been kitted out to look like Lamborghinis and Ferraris. This one has something going for it, although we’d probably spend our money under the bonnet before we fiddled with the Toyota 86’s exterior.
