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Paris Hilton Joins Lexus LFA Owner’s Club, Twice

Lifestyles of the rich and vacuous: famous-for-nothing-substantive celebrity hotel heiress, Paris Hilton, has taken delivery of her second Lexus LFA supercar. This week Ms Hilton (the 2007 Guinness World Records official ‘Most Overrated Celebrity’) became one of the few people on earth who has actually traded in a Lexus LFA. She also became one of the (even fewer) people who have owned not just one, but two LFAs.


Above: Even the super-rich usually get only one LFA...

Only 500 of the 412kW V10 LFA supercars will ever be built, and the buyers (at least in North America) were selectively chosen by Lexus. (Although not too selectively it seems…)

Above: Okay, perhaps Ms Hilton has some vestigial redeeming features

Most people would be overjoyed with just one LFA, especially as a gift (as it was in Ms Hilton’s case). Let’s be frank: most of us would dine out for weeks on 15 minutes alone with an LFA, which in Australia costs around three-quarters of a million dollars and is even more exclusive than its price tag alone would suggest because none are available to purchase. (The Aussie Lexus LFA allocation is already sold.)

Above: Only an LCD tacho can keep up with the engine's angular acceleration. Also displays the P Hilton IQ range (in red)

For brag factor: the LFA revs from idle to redline in well under a second, requiring an LCD tacho display just to keep up with the engine’s capacity for angular acceleration. Especially as a gift. The LFA’s 4.8-litre 72-degree V10 redlines at 9000rpm and cuts fuel at 9500, while delivering its maximum torque (480Nm) at 6800rpm. The exhaust note has been used on TV to do the old Ella Fitzgerald/Memorex bit – shattering a champagne glass using its resonant frequency, which is a neat, but otherwise irrelevant, trick. The car also smashes 100km/h in well under four seconds, making for some memorable future ‘But officer…’ conversations.

It’s a fair bet that most acquirers of 325km/h LFAs remain fairly happy with their exclusive, F1-derived acquisitions, especially in light of the stiff global competition for such a small volume of definitive Lexus halo cars. The strictly limited production volume won’t hurt the car’s future valuation prospects, either.

Above: On borrowed time (left)

Ms Hilton has traded in her yellow LFA in favour of a white one because – wait for it: air-headed justification of the decade – the yellow one was a 30th birthday gift from her now spurned lover, Cy Waits, w-a-a-y back in February. In the intervening several months, 30-year-old Ms Hilton has permanently revoked Mr Waits’ parking permit. So traumatic, apparently, was this boyfriend-superseding process and its aftermath that the Associated Press’s second-worst celebrity role model of 2006 (behind Britney Spears) wanted to get rid of all pertinent worldly reminders to Mr Waits. As you do. Even when one such unpalatable remainder is one of the most exclusive cars on the planet.

Problem was, the material girl loved the LFA – just not the ex-Waits LFA – so she simply swapped the yellow one for a newer white one, and presumably an undisclosed inconsequential sum changed hands.

Above: Most people probably can’t relate, but it’s tough being famous for being famous. Even in your second LFA

Paris Hilton is actually famous for her penchant for small dogs, for four designer four fragrances (Paris Hilton, Just Me, Heiress and Can Can) and has also successfully endorsed Brazillian beer brand Devassa Bem Loura, whose slogan (according, at least, to Wikipedia) translates neatly to ‘very blonde bitch’. She even has a diminutive doggy fashion label called ‘Little Lily by Paris Hilton’. Just rolls off the tongue, doesn’t it?

Above: Animal cruelty, Paris Hilton-style

“I have 17 dogs and I like to dress them, so I started designing this clothing line and it’s really cute, like dresses and jeans – everything you can imagine for humans, but for dogs,” she said, by way of doggy dress-up explanation.

Above: Late for that Mensa meeting - again

The LFA-swapping scenario described earlier is not Ms Hilton’s only supercar dalliance. Just prior to Christmas 2008, in the week after being burgled out of nearly $2 million in jewelry (and who hasn’t had that happen, inconveniently, just before the festive season?) she forked over $200,000 for a custom pink Bentley Continental GT. As you do.

Above: An example of trying a little too hard

Among the customisations were a ‘PH’ monogram (pictured) where the traditional Bentley ‘B’ bonnet badge would reside on the standard car, and special windows with a paparazzi-thwarting tint. “I love it; it’s so pretty,” she said. “I think when you’re a little girl and you have the Barbie Corvette you’re like, ‘I wish I had a car like this one’. So I think it’s just being a fan of Barbie for so long,” she explained when asked about the colour. “They’ve put a protective tint on the windows so no flashes can come through,” the publicity-shy socialite added.

Above: When good taste goes bad - inside the Hilton horror Bentley

Above: Pink GT came with matching wheels and dress, naturally

Supercars are designed to do amazing things. To offer mind-bending performance, exclusive features, unaffordable technology and ‘can’t have one’ cachet. Yet they get sent to garages, sometimes, owned by people like this. It makes you think.

The pink Bentley was actually Ms Hilton’s second Bentley. Unfortunately, she lost the first one – after a wager went awry in a casino. Of course. Apparently, daddy got rather cross about it.

Meanwhile, back on Earth…

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