Lexus RC F
Would the keeper of our RS5 swap it for its Japanese rival?
BOTH ARE FOUR-SEATER SPORTS coupes, both cost a touch over £60,000 and both have 400-and-something bhp. Both are also currently on our fleet, so it made perfect sense for Dickie Meaden and me – respective custodians of
evo’s Lexus RC F and Audi RS5 – to swap cars for a couple of weeks to find out what we thought of each other’s long-termer.
Looks-wise, the RC F was already a winner for me. I’ve seen a few on the road and they always grab my attention. Much as I love the styling of ‘my’ RS5, and its own ability to turn heads, I suspect it relies too much on its unusual Sonoma Green hue for much of its impact, whereas, to these eyes at least, the angular Lexus stands out in any colour.
By contrast to its exterior, I found the RC’S interior rather disappointing. The seats look funky but the driver’s chair felt awkwardly high even on its lowest setting, and perhaps because of this I never managed to get truly comfortable in it. (A five-hour schlep from Cambridgeshire to Somerset was a real fidget-fest as a result.) Meanwhile, the old ‘designed with a set square’ cliché sprang to mind every time I looked at the dash or centre console, too much of which appeared as if it had been transplanted in from an older model that I couldn’t quite place. The presence of a CD player (remember those?) suggested that maybe it had. The RC must surely be amongst the last cars on sale to have one, and this perhaps explains why the infotainment system had no idea how to present my USB stick full of MP3S in an even vaguely useful manner.
But who needs MP3S when you have a naturally aspirated V8 that sounds as good as the RC F’s? It’s a fabulous reminder of what we’re missing out on with the proliferation of downsized, turbocharged engines, and while the twin-turbo V6 in the RS5 slaughters it for mid-range punch, extending the RC F beyond 3500rpm and right round to 7000rpm or so delivers an aural joy the Audi can’t get anywhere near. It’s frustrating, then, that responses to the Lexus’s shift paddles – lovely metal items that completely shame the Audi’s hollow, plasticky efforts – are sometimes a bit sluggish and occasionally completely ignored, even in full manual mode.
Also frustrating is the lack of steering feel – it utterly destroyed my cornering confidence on damp roads – but the ride, on the other hand, is another highlight. It can’t quite match the magic-carpet quality of the Audi in its softest setting, but it offers a brilliant blend of comfort and control that works at any speed and copes with even the roughest surfaces.
It’s safe to say that I found the RC F to be a car of contrasts: I loved the ride, the engine and the looks, but the steering, the gearbox and elements of the cabin dented the car’s usability and desirability. A recent brief encounter with the RC’S new bigger brother, the LC500, proved that Lexus is capable of delivering better steering, a responsive gearbox and a genuinely elegant interior. If the RC F had these, I’d have been far more reluctant to swap back to the Audi. As it was, I was more than happy to have the RS5 back in my life.
That’s my tuppenceworth, anyway. Now let’s see what Dickie thinks…