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Fast & Furious' Paul Walker checks out Lexus LFA with 30,000 miles

For most vehicles, eclipsing the 30,000-mile mark isn't much to celebrate. With modern vehicles fully capable of sailing right past the 250,000-mile line with just basic, regular maintenance, the wee 30k is as common as coffee.
But that's not the case for supercars like the Lexus LFA. The limited-production machines are more likely to be museum pieces than commuter cars. That's what makes the fact that Lexus has not one, but two LFA models with over 30,000 miles on the clock so special. Paul Walker recently met the dynamic duo out at Willow Springs Raceway.
Walker seems impressed with the two supercars after hammering around the Streets course, saying the ultra rare, high-mileage LFA examples feel as quick and sturdy as they did when the left the factory. Lexus says the cars have both only received their equal shares of regular maintenance. Catch the video of both cars on track below along with a few words from Walker.

Lexus is legitimately releasing a 60,000-hour version of its 'Takumi' documentary

In an age when many people determine expertise and authority by a blue check next to a Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram account, the idea of a true expert at his or her craft has been somewhat washed out. It is no longer an expectation, it's a rarity, and Lexus is honoring those who show true dedication to the art and science of practice. On March 19, Lexus will release a documentary about reaching takumi status, the highest level an artisan in Japan can attain by putting in 60,000 hours of work. Lexus first debuted this documentary, "Takumi – A 60,000-Hour Story on the Survival of Human Craft," at the DOC NYC film festival in New York. The film, which Lexus calls a character-driven study, has two forms. The feature version will debut on Amazon Prime and other streaming services, but that's technically a cut from the full-length 60,000-hour version. Yes, 60,000 hours, that's not a typo. The elongated cut will feature loops and repetitions of various skills as a way to imitate and display what it takes to become a takumi craftsman. (In case you're wondering, 60,000 hours translates into 7,500 eight-hour workdays, or more than 20 years if the artisan never took a single day off. Twelve-hour days would achieve true takumi mastery in under 14 years. To watch the full-length documentary, running nonstop 24 hours a day without bathroom breaks, you'd need 2,500 days, or nearly seven years.) The timing of the Clay Jeter-directed (Chef's Table) documentary is no coincidence, as manufacturing and production has been hit hard by machinery and artificial intelligence. Paired with the idea that everybody now wants things instantly, there is legitimate worry that the art of human craftsmanship is dying. There are four subjects in the movie: Lexus craftsman Katsuaki Suganuma, carpenter Shigeo Kiuchi, paper artist Nahoko Kojima, and chef Hisato Nakahigashi. Each has an inspiring mentality and story regarding a principle we've all been hearing since we were children: "Practice makes perfect." But a real takumi knows there is no such thing as perfection, only the path toward it. Watch the trailer for the documentary above.

Lexus LFA prototype spied lapping the Nurburgring with new bodywork

The Lexus LFA was a real engineering tour de force. Sure, it was stuck in development hell for years, and the 4.8-liter V10's 552-horsepower output wasn't super impressive when it came out, but it integrated a ton of expertise Toyota gained from its F1 team in the early to mid 2000s. Unfortunately, it didn't sell well. Last year, we found there were a few new models sitting on dealer lots, five years after the 500-model run ended. Still, it looks like Toyota may not have given up on the idea of a race-derived flagship for Lexus, at least based on this prototype running around the Nurburgring this week. At first glance, the car pictured here looks like an LFA with the Nurburgring Package and some camouflage on the front and rear fenders. If you look closely, you can see that the fenders are significantly wider than on the standard LFA. Based on the license plate, this appears to be the same car with two different sets of wheels. Lexus may simply be swapping out worn tires, or they may be testing different wheel and tire combinations to fit the wider wheel wells. Anything beyond this is just speculation. There have been rumors of a new flagship Lexus sports car that sits atop the LC 500 and LC 500h. We saw the Toyota GR Super Sport Concept back in January, though that car looks nothing like what we see here. As much as we would love that sweet Yamaha co-developed V10 to carry over, we're not holding our breath. Some sort of hybrid powertrain is almost a certainty. Maybe Lexus and Toyota could pull some tech from its Le Mans-winning TS050 Hybrid race car. Related Video: