Lexus Get a Clean Sheet of Origami

The Lexus LC’s super-sharp design hides clean-sheet underpinnings destined for all future Lexus models. They really don’t want to mess this up.

- Phil McNamara

FORGET EVERYTHING YOU know about Lexus. It’s easily done as the LC500, the company’s new V8-powered 2+2 coupé, blips its throttle with a lycanthropic howl, as you lift to slow for a corner and the 10-speed automatic transmission downshifts, keeping the engine bang in its mid-range sweet spot. Line up the delicate steering — light-ish, precise — to carve yet another sweeping curve in Spain’s verdant Huelvan foothills. Press the throttle and start amping up the torque to the rear axle, which on range-topping Sports+ models features rear-wheel steering and a limited slip differential. The LC feels distinctly rear-driven, feeding the power to the outer wheel to pivot the car into a bend. The revs climb, the red-tinged digital speedo flickers past 90, 100, 120 km/h, the lateral loads are harsh but the multi-link rear suspension brushes off a bumpy camber change: this new GA-L chassis, to underpin all future Lexus models, is sweetly balanced and damn stable. And so to the straight: more throttle, the V8 roar building, more intense speed. There’s some of the spirit of the V10-powered LFA supercar in this Lexus, you know.

The intent with the LC, and its 500h hybrid sibling, comes from the top down. Akio Toyoda, inveterate racer and company scion, has taken Lexus under his wing, vowing to make their cars more exciting to drive, more extraordinary to look at. It all starts with the Global Architecture-Luxury platform, and the LC.

The engine is pushed back in the nose to a front/mid position, the wheels pulled forward, to get as much mass as possible between the axles. Lexus claim a 52:48 weight distribution front/rear. The centre of gravity is as low as a Porsche Cayman’s, thanks to the targeted use of materials such as a carbon-fibre roof; Lexus claim body rigidity is best-in-class.