Published:
20 October 2017The Lexus LC’s aesthetic is rooted in the scything silhouette of the sensational LFA, the gap between the two bridged by the LF-LC concept of 2012.
As such, this car doesn’t exhibit the dramatically cab-rear stance you might expect of something with front-mounted, 7300rpm, 471bhp 5.0-litre V8 that drives the rear axle.
Instead, it seems to occupy the space between GT and sports car, the cabin sitting centrally and allowing the coachwork to taper into a flat rear deck in which a retractable spoiler resides. It’s a pretty thing indeed.
That coachwork, underpinned by Lexus’s emergent GA-L (Global Architecture – Luxury) platform, uses a mix of steel, aluminium and carbonfibre.
Suspension is provided by steel coil springs and adaptive dampers. Lexus claims the geometry of the multi-link set-up at the front underwent six months of remodelling in order to allow the LC’s bonnet line to sit so low. Slender headlight units, meanwhile, make for an unusually short front overhang.
Bereft of forced induction, this is not a V8 famed for its torque (a peak 398lb ft doesn’t arrive until 4800rpm and even then enjoys only a fleeting existence), something Lexus has sought to remedy by equipping the car with the tightly packed ratios of its Direct Shift torque-converter automatic transmission – all 10 of them – complete with separate clutch lock-up.
