Though Lexus spokespeople continue to play dumb with us, pretending that the LF-A coupe that graced the show stand in Detroit in January of 2005 remains merely a concept and nothing more, we know much better, having camped out to see the numerous LF-A-derived prototypes lapping Germany’s famous Nürburgring test track during the last year or so.

While the most recent prototype, seen in these pictures, clearly has a lot in common with the slippery, elegant show car, it appears that several key aspects of the coupe’s styling have changed, perhaps to address initial criticisms that the silky concept LF-A had a bit too much Victoria’s Secret and not enough Hugo Boss in the look of its designer duds. Clearly, something had to be done for the LF-A to be taken seriously by the 911 crowd.

What we can tell by looking, then, by comparing it with the concept (below left) as well as earlier prototypes, is that the production LF-A (right) will have larger, triangular headlamps that will reach higher into the fenders than the demure, quad-lamp treatment seen on the concept. Also changed is the front air dam, which is more aggressive and contains a solid panel in the center where the concept had an aperture. Speaking of apertures, it seems that Lexus has added an additional air intake on the bodyside aft of the door to feed more air to the mid-mounted engine (which last we heard was a V-10 with a rumored 500 horsepower or so). In back, the huge, low-mounted rear grilles seem to have swollen in a most ungainly way, but the trio of center-mounted exhaust pipes remains intact.

Another interesting development is the installation of a massive, fixed rear wing (which would surely be scaled down for production) in place of the smaller version we saw on previous prototypes. Could it be that Lexus is trying to add even more top-end performance, now that Audi has shown us its 187-mph R8? Let’s hear it for one-upmanship!

Considering that Lexus won’t even acknowledge the presence of the prototype you see here, there is no official word on actual engine output, transmission choices, pricing, on-sale date, or anything else we’d really like to know, for that matter. However, our expert conjecture is that the V-10 will be mated to an eight-speed manumatic transaxle when the car goes on sale late next year or in early 2008 with a price tag of about $100K, making it the priciest Japanese car ever to be sold in the U.S.