Toyota’s luxury brand Lexus has started producing the LC at an exclusive new assembly line at Motomachi, Japan, which used to be home to the LFA supercar.
Destined for the European market, the units built here are put together “by a team of specially selected and trained Takumi craftspeople”, as the automaker explained, each of them having an average time of almost 20 minutes for their tasks.
Culminating with a new glass-walled boot, where every part of the car’s bodywork is subjected to intense examination under a battery of LED lights, the new assembly line also has an area for inspecting the exhaust silencer, which is surrounded by thicker glass panels, so that employees can detect even the slightest sound abnormality.
And since it sits in the same spot where the LFA used to be assembled, albeit reshaped and made all-white to help engineers maintain focus on their work, the Lexus LC also benefits from a number of technologies that were first developed for the aforementioned supercar. These include the Resin Transfer Molding (RTM) for the production of the CFRP material, which serves a major role in reducing the vehicle’s weight.
Available with two powertrains – the V8 LC or hybrid LC 500h, the first units of the car will arrive in European showrooms in August. Prices start from £76,595 ($99,785), in the United Kingdom.
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