An early drive of the new Lexus LC 500 reveals that the company’s claims for bigger thrills are far from the usual marketing talk.
Motor Trend had the opportunity to test a prototype of the new LC 500 in the Laguna Seca and Willow Springs tracks, revealing that the new Lexus is indeed engineered to be a proper sports car.
Koji Sato, chief engineer of the new LC 500 also revealed that Lexus benchmarked the BMW 6-Series during the development but they also wanted to add the emotional experience of a Maserati into the mix, creating their own unique blend of a sports car.
Based on a new platform which is even stiffer than the carbon one of the LFA supercar, the new Lexus LC 500 uses a 5.0-litre V8 producing 467hp which is mated to a brand new 10-speed automatic from Aisin, making it capable for a 0-60mph in less than 4.5 seconds.
Let’s hope that this is the model which will lead Lexus into a new era when it hits the market in late 2016.