Lexus a Looker
Handling is great, and design of 2018 LC 500 is even better
This is not going to be an even-handed evaluation. There will be no independent adjudication of performance. There will be little of the dispassionate dissection of handling versus comfort that people seek out Driving for. And I will attempt no analysis of equipment versus price. In fact, I don’t even know the price. Nor do I care.
Nosiree Bob, none of that detached, disinterested objectivity for me because … I’m a fan boy. A totally committed, don’t-argue-with-me-cause-I-don’t-wanna-hear-it fan boy.
I love the LC. As in I think it’s absolutely gorgeous, the most beautiful thing on four wheels I’ve see in the past 10 years. I’ve thought so since Lexus first introduced the LF-LC as a concept in 2012 and nothing I’ve seen since has changed my mind.
The new-for-2018 LC 500 is a virtual clone of the 2012 concept, its shape identical, save for a slight increase in height and reduction in width. So, yes, you could park this in my driveway and I wouldn’t care if the heater didn’t work. Thankfully, the LC needs no such apology.
The basic LC 500 is powered by a V8. Not one of those namby-pamby, downsized-for-fuel-economy turbocharged V8s that all the Europeans have introduced because their diesels are soon to be verboten, but a truly sporting, I-can’t-wait-till-the-revs-get-past-4,000, naturally aspirated 5.0-litre V8. No it doesn’t have quite the torque of a Mercedes SL550 — 398 pound-feet at 4,800 rpm versus the Merc’s monstrous 516 lb-ft at 1,800 rpm — but it revs like a banshee and takes but 4.4 seconds to accelerate to 96 km/h.
The reason Lexus is bucking the trend to turbocharging, says chief engineer Koji Sato, is so its latest super coupe can sound like an escapee from the Targa Florio. It screams like a high-revving gem, the big Lexi pulling hard all the way to its 7,100 rpm cut-off point. Compare that with Mercedes and BMW turbos that run out of puff by 5,500 rpm.
And the LC 500h hybrid is almost as competent. Starting with a GS 350h powertrain (a 3.5-L V6 and electric motor combined), the LC 500h is a further development of Toyota’s hybrid strategy. There’s more power, at 359 net hp, but Lexus has also added a new MG2 electric motor. In the fuel-economy department, Lexus Canada will currently only describe the 500h’s consumption (it’s still waiting for official certification) as better than 30 miles per US gallon. That translates into 7.8 L/100 km. Considering that Lexus also claims the 500h can accelerate to 96 km/h in just 4.7 seconds and we observed a highway fuel economy of about 7.2 L/100 km, that’s quite a balance of performance and economy.
Not everything is perfect in the powertrain department, however. Indeed, the transmissions — a new 10-speed Aisin affair in the LC 500 and an incredibly complicated planetary gear set with an additional “multistage shift device” in the 500h — proved the weak point of the LC experience. But for opposite reasons.