A few days ago, Lexus officially released a new model trailer of the F series, although the picture clarity is very low, but we can still see through the outline that it is a Lexus LC F. This is very interesting, because according to the previous plan, the LC F project has been cancelled in 2020, is Lexus really going to build a high-performance version of the LC F?
On March 16 this year, Lexus brought LC Hokkaido Edition (Hokkaido Special Edition), saw the word "Edition", I believe that fans and friends must be familiar with it, only the final version of the model will use this word. Hokkaido is also home to the Lexus Vehicle Test Site. Therefore, using the test site to name the special edition model obviously has the meaning of commemoration and farewell, and I thought that Lexus LC was going to leave like this.
I didn't think that Lexus would play, and in the era of vigorously promoting electrification, it would also bring us a high-performance version of the LC F. The letter "F" is to Lexus fans, just like the meaning of AMG, M, RS for Ashkenazi fans. Its "F" is named after Fuji Speedway (Fuji Speedway, Japan), a high-performance brand founded by Toyota's soul engineer Yukihiko Yaguchi.
Fans familiar with Yukihiko Yaguchi know that he is a "performance maniac" who does not compromise, and his resume is almost a "Toyota performance car milestone". Toyota Supra has his shadow in it, and the Lexus SC and Toyota Chaser are inseparable from his contribution. As Lexus entered the U.S. market, Yukihiko Yaguchi wanted to build a performance car he really wanted, so Yukihiko Yaguchi used his rest time to upgrade and modify the first generation of IS (2000) that had just been launched.
Later, with the optimistic attitude of casual play, this IS that condensed Yaguchi's enthusiasm gradually took shape. Yaguchi soon gained the attention of Lexus USA and other engineers, and the engineers he infected also threw themselves into the development of the prototype. The company's top management also saw the future of the project, and they even hired XS ENGINEERING, a well-known American tuner, to collaborate on the development. The result was an IS 430 equipped with a 3UZ-FE 4.3L V8 self-priming engine used in the second-generation GS and a Supra 6-speed manual transmission. The maximum power reaches 340 horsepower and even surpasses the GS 430, and zero hundred acceleration takes only 5 seconds. Although the IS 430 was not successfully mass-produced (the first generation of IS is facing a replacement), it also became a forward model for the Lexus "F" series.
Since the IS 430, the development of Lexus high-performance vehicles has not stopped. Finally, with the strong support of Akio Toyoda, the high-performance IS F was officially finalized in 2005 with a 2UR-GSE 5.0L V8 engine jointly developed with Yamaha Engine. In 2007, ISF was officially released at the North American International Auto Show, and the emergence of ISF also officially announced the birth of Lexus' high-performance product "F", and the European brands that have occupied the high-performance luxury car market for many years are about to usher in a fierce rival.
In addition to the RC F, GS F and Lexus "ceiling" LFA that we all know, "F" has also fought in the field. According to the data, at the beginning of the release of IS F, Lexus had created an IS F Racing Concept concept car that met the specifications of the German Touring Car Masters (DTM) based on the experience of the toyota Chaser JGTC chariot in the past. Since then, engineers have created a special isS F CSS-R for the track, which is 314 kilograms thinner than the ordinary ISF. And it also competed in the famous Pike Peak Mountaineering Race. In addition to ISF, LFA has also built two upgraded LFA Code-x and won the first place in the SP8 and SP-Pro categories in the 2014 season. Similarly, as the third milestone of the F family, RC F has also launched the RC F GT3 concept car dedicated to racing, which is used to compete in major events.
In this way, it is only the difference LC F, and it is not excluded that the new car is a car based on LC, which is still a bit of a pity. After all, fans and friends have been looking forward to it for so long, we once completed a store visit with an LC 500h in October 2021, if there are fan friends who bought #11 magazines, you can turn 98 pages to relive the art dessert brand NUDAKE and Jiang Sida's dresscode florist created by GENTLE MONSTER. The only regret is that there is only a 3.5-liter V6 hybrid LC in China, and there is no "real" LC with a 5.0-liter V8 in the North American market.
If the new Lexus LC F really arrives, it is expected that there will be more surging power in the power, and it will certainly be upgraded with the LC 500 model currently equipped with a 5.0-liter V8 engine to achieve a more extreme upgrade. According to foreign media, the LC F model or will be equipped with a 4.0T V8 twin-turbo engine, the maximum power can reach 670 horsepower (the current model 471 horsepower), the transmission system matches the 8-speed manual transmission, zero hundred acceleration only takes 3.2 seconds.
Just like the LC Hokkaido Edition mentioned at the beginning of the article (Hokkaido Special Edition), Hokkaido has witnessed the birth and development of the Lexus "F" brand. Whether or not LC F will come to us in the end, as Mr. Yukihiko Yaguchi said, the "F" family has only one purpose, that is, to build a car happily and make consumers fall in love with it. I hope that in the future, I will have the opportunity to collect an "F" model, and also respond positively to those who talk about "Lake Meats" all day long.