There’s a seemingly endless supply of rare and collectible variants of supercars in this world. They only made X amount of this model with that option, this trim level, this transmission, etc. Largely, it’s semantics that normal folks like you and I will never have time to care for. In the case of this convertible supercar, though, my ears definitely perked up. Though, I might be a bit late to the party.

Lexus made an LFA Roadster, and sacrificing a kidney to drive it seems fair

The Lexus LFA is a supercar icon. Many automotive enthusiasts agree that it’s one of the best, if not the outright best-sounding vehicles on the planet. With its high-revving V10 engine, it sounds like an outright race car, even doing the most mundane driving. Imagine having the opportunity to hear that engine in open-top format.

Great news! Sort of, anyway. Lexus did indeed make at least one convertible supercar variant: the LFA Roadster. However, calling this thing a convertible is inaccurate because it doesn’t have a retracting roof. In fact, it doesn’t have a roof at all, as Jay Leno points out in an episode of Jay Leno’s Garage.

Aside from the missing roof, the LFA Roadster is standard issue. That is, as “standard issue” as a Lexus LFA can get. You know, with its detail-oriented handling refinement that cost so much to develop that virtually every LFA sold was at a loss? The 553 horsepower V10 that revs to 9,500 RPM? Yep. Standard stuff.

How many LFA Roadster examples exist?

In the video above, Jay Leno states that the LFA Roadster he is driving is the only one that exists and ever will exist. However, there have been a few contesting arguments to that statement. What’s more, the photographic evidence is pretty convincing.

For example, GT Spirit posted an article in 2015 revealing that there appears to be a yellow example in existence. The car was part of an exhibit at a Tokyo media show called Media Ambition Tokyo in 2015.

The Flickr account Car-parazzi also spotted a red one on the road back in 2009. Unlike the other two models, though, the license plate actually says “LFA Roadster” instead of just “LFA.” This particular example appears to be the same one that toured auto show circuits in 2008 and 2009. It seems, then, that there are at least three in existence. It does make you wonder, though, if Lexus has more, and they’re hiding them from us.

Just for fun, here’s a Top Gear article from 2012 where the white LFA Roadster, presumably the same one Jay Leno drove, is seen drifting. In addition, this car was recently spotted at a car meet in Tokyo. It seems to be in the hands of a private collector. Considering the fact that standard LFA models (of which there are only 500) are selling for north of $750,000 and upwards of $1 million, we can only imagine what price point this nearly nonexistent convertible supercar would bring at auction.