Published:
20 October 2017We’ve got generous praise and quite serious censure for Lexus here.
As the bigger of two coupés in Lexus ’s range and one with an ‘L’ for luxury in its model nomenclature, the Lexus LC ought to be a comfortable ride.
However, just as the car’s touring practicality was sacrificed somewhat on the altar of that striking exterior, so has compromise been brought to its dynamic repertoire.
That body design, you suspect, left little or no space for both a usable boot and a spare wheel, so Lexus decided to fit run-flat tyres, around either 20in or 21in wheels, at quite an early stage.
There is no doubt, however, that the LC’s stiff-sidewalled run-flat tyres adversely affect how well its suspension can deal with shorter, sharper bumps, and how much road noise is filtered into the cabin.
Lexus’s own engineers must have known it was likely: somebody simply decided that the car’s design appeal mattered more.
What Lexus has been left with is a car whose suspension often fidgets and fiddles away over the road’s surface where other, better GTs would soothe and glide.
The problem is clearly to do with Lexus’s choices on suspension tuning as well, because the LC500 is fairly firmly sprung and bushed for a big coupé – and it feels it. That’s mitigated a little if you keep the adaptively damped suspension in Comfort mode, but it’s always a present bugbear.
