Weighty matters

Extra kilos blunt sporty aspirations

IMAGINE having a sexy performance coupe that impresses your friends, but having to drive it around with three of them in the car. All the time.

That’s what the Lexus RC200T feels like, because it’s some 230kg heavier than the rival BMW 430i that also has a 2.0-litre turbo four and develops a similar 185kw and 350Nm. That’s a lot of extra weight to cart around, and it feels it. Even the equivalent Audi A5 has a 150kg advantage, and it has the added complication of all-wheel drive.

On the plus side, all that extra weight makes the RC feel really solid, as if the car has been machined from a billet of steel. Maybe it has. It certainly doesn’t feel like a glorified Toyota, no matter what the knockers say. Lexus has always prided itself on build quality and clearly doesn’t mind beefing up to achieve that aim.

Those extra kilos make the car sit well on the road, and it rides nicely around town. If you’re not in a hurry and unconcerned about winning the Traffic Light Grand Prix, it’s a comfortable and solid drive.

Against the stopwatch and zipping around the suburbs, though, there’s no escaping that burden. Sprinting from 0-100km/h, the RC200T is an astonishing 1.7sec slower than the 430i (7.5sec versus 5.8sec) despite being virtually line-ball in terms of outputs and ratios. Then the brakes have to work hard to bring it to rest again. It’s all down to those three porky virtual mates it has to haul around all the time.

Opting for the same package in the fourdoor IS200T saves about 45kg, which slashes half a second from the sprint time, as well as $7500 from the price. The sedan brings the convenience of smaller doors (with proper window frames so there’s no door-shut rattle that comes with the coupe electrically snapping tight the side glass), better rearseat access and improved vision, though with a slightly less rorty exhaust, higher seating and less jetfighter-like cockpit. And, of course, less presence. The coupe really does catch the eye.

If Lexus could somehow remove two hundred kilos, then recalibrate the throttle for a much sharper response, the company may just have the sports coupe the RC clearly aspires to be.