The gorgeous and luxurious Lexus LC coupe is available in two delicious flavours – spicy wasabi V6 hybrid LC500h and peppery V8 LC500.
THE LC is not the belated replacement for the LFA, Lexus’ 4.8-litre V10 carbon fibre supercar, even though it’s assembled in the same area of the Motomachi Plant which used to build the LFA.
Lexus’ greatest-ever product was a special model limited to just 500 units, produced between 2010 and 2012. Six LFAs made it to Singapore. The LC, on the other hand, is a regular production model and Lexus will build as many as it can sell.
When it comes to Singapore in June, the LC is expected to be considerably less expensive than the LFA, which cost about $1.3 million.
Provisional pricing (without COE) will be in the region of $500,000 for the 5-litre V8 petrol LC500 and about 10-15 per cent more for the 3.5-litre V6 petrol-electric hybrid LC500h. The V8 LC is likely to arrive first, followed by the V6 LC a few months later.
At that price level, the LC provides outstanding value before even turning a wheel, because its spectacular exterior looks like a million dollars, yet its price tag will be much closer to half a million.
When I first saw the LC in the metal, I thought of a samurai sword – sharp, shiny, refined.
With its low-slung bodywork, even lower-slung bonnet and sweeping roofline, the coupe can probably slice through the air like a sword, too.
Eye-catching exterior details include the chrome-finished mesh spindle grille, “arrowhead” LED headlights and L-shaped tail- lamp clusters. The door handles, recessed within the doors (which have an aluminium skin mounted on a carbon fibre structure), pop out in a V-shape for your hand to grab when the car is unlocked.
Three different wheel-sets are available for the vehicle: 20-inch cast alloy, 20-inch forged alloy and 21-inch forged alloy. The choice of 12 body colours include a bold yellow, an unusual blue, two intensities of red and two shades of black.
There’s an optional Sport+ Package that adds an active rear spoiler (automatically deploys to suppress lift at the rear when the speed exceeds 80km/h) and specifies carbon fibre reinforced plastic for the roof.
I don’t know how much weight the composite material saves, but it certainly adds street cred to the car.
Not that the LC needs more help with its streetside credibility. On the streets of downtown Seville, the cool blue LC500h I was driving got plenty of attention from pedestrians and motorists, like it was some exotic prototype that escaped from a European motor show.
The Lexus hybrid is exotic and also unbelievably economical. When I left the start point of the road test, the trip computer displayed a range of 1002 kilometres. In theory, I could drive the LC500h from Seville to Barcelona, 995km away.
I didn’t, of course. Instead, I drove to Monteblanco Circuit, where I would sample the full-throttle, high-speed dynamics of the LC500h and LC500 back to back.
The technical presentation for the LC500h reflected the coupe’s complexity, and I almost catch no ball. But I managed to catch the most important keyword – “Multi Stage Hybrid System”.
The state-of-the-art system cleverly combines a 3.5-litre V6 petrol engine, a powerful electric motor and a lithium-ion battery pack with a 4-speed automatic gearbox mounted at the rear of the hybrid transmission.
Despite having an additional autobox to “boost” the combined power of the combustion engine and electric motor, the system is said to weigh the same as the current hybrid drivetrain in the GS450h (whose engine output is amplified by the electric motor via a reduction gear).
The hybrid LC’s resultant four-stage “multiplier” effect is claimed to generate acceleration that’s strong, smooth and in tune with the driver’s throttle inputs. The LC500h also offers an M mode for driver-initiated gearshifting – it’s the first Lexus hybrid car with this engaging “manual” feature. The V6 is also capable of revving to a high of 6600rpm.
In his presentation, chief engineer of the LC, Koji Sato, explained, “In the past, people only associated ‘hybrid’ with ‘eco’. We wanted to broaden that perception and create a true high-performance powertrain.”
Other keywords mentioned during the technical briefing were “continuous acceleration”, “responsive acceleration” and “direct acceleration”. Naturally, acceleration was the name of the game for the athletic Lexus on the racing circuit.
ENGINE 3456cc, 24-valves, V6, hybrid
MAX POWER 299bhp at 6000rpm (total system output 359bhp)
MAX TORQUE 348Nm at 4900rpm
POWER TO WEIGHT 180.9bhp per tonne
GEARBOX 4-speed automatic with multi-stage shift device
0-100KM/H 5 seconds
TOP SPEED 250km/h
CONSUMPTION Not available
CO2 EMISSION Not available
PRICE INCL. COE To be announced
DRIVETRAIN
TYPE V8, 32-valves
CAPACITY 4969cc
BORE X STROKE 94mm x 89.5mm
COMPRESSION RATIO 12.3:1
MAX POWER 477bhp at 7100rpm
MAX TORQUE 540Nm at 4800rpm
POWER TO WEIGHT 246.5bhp per tonne
GEARBOX 10-speed automatic with manual select
DRIVEN WHEELS Rear
PERFORMANCE
0-100KM/H 4.7 seconds
TOP SPEED 270km/h
CONSUMPTION Not available
CO2 EMISSION Not available
SUSPENSION
FRONT Multi-link, coil springs
REAR Multi-link, coil springs
BRAKES
FRONT / REAR Ventilated discs
TYRES
TYPE Bridgestone Potenza S001L
SIZE 245/45 R20 (front), 275/40 R20 (rear)
SAFETY
AIRBAGS 8
TRACTION AIDS ABS, VSC
MEASUREMENTS
LENGTH 4770mm
WIDTH 1920mm
HEIGHT 1345mm
WHEELBASE 2870mm
KERB WEIGHT 1935kg
TURNING CIRCLE Not available
BUYING IT
PRICE EXCL. COE To be announced
WARRANTY 3 years/100,000km
+ DRAMATIC EXTERIOR/ INTERIOR DESIGN, SPORTY PERFORMANCE, SUPERB COMFORT FOR TWO
– HEAVIER THAN ITS SLEEK FORM SUGGESTS, BOOT AND BACKSEAT ARE CRAMPED FOR A GRAND TOURER
This hybrid is quick. It powers from a standstill to 100km/h in 5 seconds flat, although its surprising ability to overspin the rear wheels in anger (the LC500h is said to be the first Lexus hybrid able to do so) might waste a split-second when accelerating aggressively.
And this hybrid is agile. It dives into corners confidently and changes speed/direction without any delay or slack. It steers exactly to where I want, and with the exact amount of assistance I need. The steering wheel is terrific, too – handily sized, positioned just right and a pleasure to hold.
The 3.5-litre petrol V6 sounds like it’s doing most of the hard work when playing on the track, but without the electric motor providing solid and timely boosts, the LC500h wouldn’t feel this punchy in the first place.
But the 5-litre V8 LC500 is even punchier. And it has no fewer than 10 gears to deliver the ample power. Ten, count them! But don’t lose count while you’re gunning through the gears.
According to chief engineer Koji Sato, the first gear ratio of the LC500’s 10-speed automatic transmission is a lot shorter than the first gear ratio of the 8-speed RC F, Lexus’ other high-performance two-door model that has essentially the same V8 engine as the LC500. And gear ratios number 2, 3 and 4 are stacked really close to one another.
Add 477bhp, 540Nm and a vigorous V8 soundtrack to the powertrain equation, and the result is a highly civilised version of GT500-class racing in Japan’s Super GT championship.
The LC500 is unabashedly faster and racier than the LC500h, with stirring sound effects from the engine bay and exhaust pipes to make the experience even more exciting.
However, the LC500 seems to be a little less neutral than the well-balanced LC500h when turning into sharper bends.
On the long straight after the circuit’s final corner, with the car’s throttle wide open, I saw 210km/h on the speedometer of the LC500, versus 180km/h in the LC500h.
On public roads and highways, the LC behaves like a true grand tourer – comfortable in any road/traffic situation and capable of devouring long distances at a good clip.
But the boot cannot devour much baggage, even without a space-eating spare tyre (the car rides on run-flat tyres). There’s only 197 litres of cargo room in the LC500 and even less (172 litres) in the LC500h, whose hybrid battery is parked between the backseats and the boot compartment (the LC500’s standard battery is located under the boot floor).
The hybrid battery is relatively compact and lightweight, being an efficiently packaged lithium-ion unit with satellite construction (a first for Lexus) that’s 20 percent smaller than the nickel-metal hydride battery pack in the existing LS hybrid limo.
The LC cabin is beautifully designed, stylishly decorated and generously equipped. The interior is also very well-made, right down to the finishing of the carefully hand-sewn leather gearshift knob. The cabin’s lovely leather upholstery is accompanied by classy Alcantara, which appears to drape from the door panels.
All the controls are user-friendly and almost all the switches, menus/sub-menus, graphics and alphanumerics would be familiar to current Lexus owners.
The idiot-proof dashboard controls include two chunky knobs, sticking out from each side of the instrument panel cowling – one to select the drive mode and the other to set the traction/snow mode. The LFA has a prominent pair of “dash ears”, too, but they’re chunkier than those in the LC and one of them is actually just for the lights, with the other setting the drive mode of the V10 monster.
The LC’s four interior colour schemes suit the “fast-and-high fashion” exterior design theme.
Black is the safest option, Dark Rose is less safe and more suave, while Ochre is a homely combo of browns. The funkiest of the four cabin colour schemes is Breezy Blue, which is a striking mix of blue, orange and white (seats) that would look perfect in Tokyo’s neon-lit Shibuya.
The LC’s front seats are fantastic – attractive, plush and supportive. But the backseats aren’t great for 1.73m tall me – my head is wedged against the rear windscreen and my knees brush against the front seatbacks.
Even if the LC turned out to be no better to drive than the cheaper RC, it would still be a winner, because it looks like a million bucks but costs a lot less than that.
