Lexus Rising
Road & Track|March/April 2017

Toyota’s Luxury Division Grew Sleepy.  This Sexy Beast Wakes It Up.

Jasonh. Harper
Lexus Rising

CAR CONNOISSEURS, it is time to put away your knives. To cease the mean jabs. “It’s pretty good . . . for a Lexus.” Akio Toyoda, president of Toyota and Lexus brand ambassador, listened, politely, as you told him that his cars were a bore. After a research trip to the United States in 2011, he returned to Japan and issued an executive edict: Banish the boredom.

The result, more than five years on, sits infront of us today, in the Spanish sun, and we can say unequivocally: You ain’t gonna yawn.

The LC 500 is the production version of the LF-LC concept car shown in Detroit in 2012. It is a big-boned, rear-drive coupe, slightly shorter than a Mercedes E-class coupe but wider and lower. The Lexus uses its size to make a definite impression, athletic and purposeful. It fills a parking spot commandingly.

The company was able to pull off this trick because the LC 500 isn’t based on any other Lexus or Toyota vehicle. It’s a clean-sheet design on an all-new platform that will also underpin the next LS sedan. The LC is the first Lexus to wear the spindle grille as a resplendent crown rather than a design oddity. With its extra-long hood, two-plus-two seating, and an interior that uses expensive materials playfully, the LC 500 comes off as upscale and potent, a shiny toy in the best of ways.

The details are a marvel. The mesh on the grille is tight near the hood and then loosens as it waterfalls down the nose. The lines along the sides dance in sunlight. The rear is a cheeky reinterpretation of the nose. The cabin has beautifully designed grab handles on either side of the passenger, and the seats, with origami-inspired bolsters, beg you to climb into them.

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