Lexus LC a 'door opener'

New sports coupe a promise of things to come
The Lexus LC is a pioneer for the Toyota-owned prestige brand, and will lead the way for future model development, says Toji Sato, the chief engineer for the LC project.

Speaking in Spain during the global launch of the new coupe, Sato-san described the LC as a "door opener" for the Lexus brand.

Asked what we can expect once the door opens, Sato says we can look forward to "brave design" and "exhilarating performance", but he held back from revealing whether there would be a higher-performance flagship for the LC range.

"Honestly speaking, I cannot touch on in detail for the future product planning, but of course we know this segment needs a lot of variation – like big-engined cars, more high performance and sometimes a convertible...

"We know that situation, but... right now there is no plan for unique models to do this."

While reluctant to discuss an ultra-high performance variant of his brainchild, Sato did mention that the LC could be fitted with the GS F's TVD (torque vectoring differential) down the track; the platform would support that.

The Lexus engineer left the door open a crack for discussion of an LC convertible in future.

"If you think about the crash performance – the energy transfer – it's different from the coupe-type car. But as I mentioned, this car has a new platform, so this platform has a much bigger capability. We're all thinking about future expansion or future model line-up... so this brand has a greater capability to make a wider variation [of models]."

Driving dynamics a cornerstone for future development
Among the product development changes from Lexus in the next few years, there'll be a stronger focus on vehicle dynamics, particularly handling – which Sato admits is an area where the brand needs to improve. This is doubtless due in part to benchmarking the LC against some high-flying rivals.

"We did a lot of tests with luxury coupes [from] other brands. One of these is the Porsche 911. Personally, I'm a big fan of the Porsche 911... especially [for] handling behaviour. [It's] very agile...

"We were also benchmarking the Maserati GT. The engine sound is very nice, so we checked the engine note – it's kind of a perfect balance."

Sato observed that the Maserati's engine bay is not a very space-efficient layout, but as the Lexus engineers discovered, that allows the engine's exhaust headers to snake their way around under the bonnet for an optimised sporty sound.

"That's going to make a beautiful sound... that's the uniqueness of the Maserati."

Sato-san also considers the BMW 6 Series a benchmark for the LC in the areas of "braking performance and body control".

But when it comes to inspiration for the LC's ground-breaking looks, Sato says that his team didn't benchmark it against any other brand, nor did it retain any cues from the SC430 – the last sports coupe from Lexus.

"It's not linked with SC. This is a totally new one, a symbol of the next generation Lexus. So we're going to build a new era of new luxury coupe.

"We're going to create our own way, our own design taste.

"The new keyword for design is brave... more distinctive, more unique design will be applied to future Lexus models from now.

"Our designers' intention is not following anyone."

There were engineering compromises addressed in taking the design from the LF-LC show car and massaging it for re-emergence as the production LC.

"Actually, the LF-LC is totally different..." Sato said. The LC is 80mm narrower than the concept and 75mm higher, but the production model feels little different from the concept car, spatially.

"That's kind of the magic of the designer," Sato observed.