When the Lexus LFA was unveiled at the 2009 Tokyo Motor Show, it was immediately clear that the marque had produced a truly remarkable supercar.

Family scion Akio Toyoda had recently been appointed as president of the Toyota Motor Corporation, the company his grandfather incorporated 72 years earlier.

Toyoda wanted to create a halo product to commemorate the return of family control to Toyota, and the result was so groundbreaking that it eventually helped propel him to Autocar magazine’s 2012 Man of the Year.

Appropriately, Lexus deemed the “A” in LFA to stand for “Apex,” as the car embodied the peak of the company’s engineering efforts.

Only 500 examples were produced from 2011 through 2013, making each car an instant collector’s item, an eventuality that prompted the manufacturer to initially sell the model only to those who would commit to long-term ownership.

Toyota co-developed the LFA’s 4.8-liter V-10 engine with Yamaha and built it in the same facility that constructed Toyo...