World Cars Motor Show

The new Pebble Beach Editions of the Lexus RX350 sport-utility and ES350 luxury sedan??”on display for the first time here at the Chicago auto show??”will sorely disappoint anyone whose image of a ???special edition??™ automobile includes a vinyl roof, crushed velveteen seats, opera windows and wide whitewall tires. Sticking a luxury or designer nameplate onto an otherwise run-of-the-mill car is hardly new or revolutionary. Past examples have ranged from subtle suburbia-mobiles (L.L. Bean-badged Subarus come to mind) to over-the-top and disco-tastic luxury barges like Bill Blass and Versace-labeled Lincolns from the late-1970s. And don??™t even get us started on the king of them all, the gloriously tacky Levi Strauss edition 1973 AMC Gremlin that sported a faux denim interior.

Thankfully, the Pebble Beach Edition RX and ES are too classy to warrant comparison with many of these less than illustrious forebears. This marks the first time in a six-year partnership that Pebble Beach editions are available on anything other than Lexus??™s SC430 roadster. Production of the Pebble Beach RX and ES is limited to 6000 vehicles each and will be available beginning in mid-February for the RX and mid-March for the ES. A sixth version of the SC430 Pebble Beach Edition arrives this summer, followed by the big-daddy of them all, an LS600h L Pebble Beach Edition that arrives in the fall.

While they??™re probably a couple million dollars cheaper than buying a home overlooking the 18th fairway, the Pebble Beach Lexuses are still aimed more for the country club set than the putt-putt champions amongst us. The Pebble Beach RX350 costs an additional $3880 on top of the front-wheel drive RX350??™s base price of $38,265. All-wheel-drive adds another $1400. The Pebble Beach RX features exclusive colors, unique 18-inch wheels, a chrome grille, color-keyed rear spoiler, and special interior trim. The ES is also available in special colors (such as ???Truffle Mica???), Pebble Beach Edition seven-spoke 17-inch wheels with a liquid graphite finish, along with interior trim upgrades and small badges on the front fenders.

Owners of an RX or ES Pebble Beach Edition can further indulge themselves with the Lexus Personalization Program. Three categories of packages are designed to invoke what Lexus refers to as ???the unparalleled feel of the world-famous Pebble Beach Resorts.??? These packages include: The Callaway Golf Experience, Travel Sets, and Epicurean Encounter. Sorry, but none of these luxury add-ons include a fake denim interior, rear opera windows, or even an optional vinyl roof.

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The engineers and designers at Lexus continue to use their groundbreaking LF-A premium sports car concept as a medium for expressing their ideas about what a high-performance sporting vehicle not only can be, but should be. In this latest expression of the LF-A, they have removed the car’s top to create a high-performance roadster.

The LF-A Roadster is based on the sturdy yet lightweight carbon-fiber and aluminum body used for the LF-A coupe, which helps maintain the structure’s strength and rigidity even without a top.

Like its coupe counterpart, the LF-A Roadster is powered by a high-revving V10 engine that approaches 5.0 liters in displacement. The V10, capable of more than 500 horsepower and test-track speeds greater than 200 mph, is mounted in front of the passenger compartment but behind the front-axle centerline in what the LF-A’s engineers refer to as a “front-mid” configuration.

The engine is connected via a torque tube and propeller shaft to a transaxle that is controlled by paddle shifters. The torque tube is a structural member that adds rigidity to the drivetrain and chassis while also reducing vibration.

Styling is rooted in the Lexus L-Finesse design philosophy, conferring the LF-A Roadster’s front end with a compact, low-profile, aerodynamic shape. Like its coupe counterpart, the LF-A Roadster stands just 48 inches tall, but the Roadster configuration adds a speed adaptive rear wing.

The rear is marked by a pair of wrap-around, arrowhead-shaped taillights that bracket a pair of large grilles. These grilles vent the heated air from the car’s two rear-mounted radiators into the LF-A Roadster’s aerodynamic wake. The radiators are fed cool air by two large intake ducts mounted just above the rear wheel wells. This aft radiator positioning not only allowed the designers to keep the car’s front profile low and tight but also aided the LF-A’s chassis engineers in their search for optimal weight distribution.

Helping to provide balance and scale to the design, which features an overall length of 175.6 inches and a wheelbase of 102.6 inches, are high-performance tires on turbine-styled alloy wheels. The front tires are 265/35 R20s, while the rears are 305/30 R20s. Like the LF-A coupe, the brakes consist of 14.2-inch cross-drilled, vented discs up front, and 13.6-inch cross-drilled, vented discs at the rear. The front brake calipers are six-piston units and the rear calipers use four pistons each.

An “F” logo, located on each front fender of the Roadster, indicates the vehicle’s status as a part of the new “F” marque. The name is derived from the original “F” designation for the first Lexus LS prototype. That vehicle was internally coded “Circle-F,” with the “F” standing for “flagship.” The Circle-F designation further evolved into the code name Flagship One, or F1, and the first F1 concept developed into Lexus’ first vehicle, the LS. Since then, the “F” code has come to signify a special vehicle program within Lexus that falls outside the normal engineering and development process. In addition, Fuji Speedway is the IS F’s home circuit, and the shape of the F-logo was inspired by many of the track’s turns. The all-new Lexus IS F sport sedan is the first production vehicle to carry the F marque.

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Enough teasing already. Lexus is the luxury division of arguably the most cautious carmaker on the planet, but even by Toyota??™s painstaking standards we are getting impatient for the official green light on the Lexus LF-A supercar that was caught testing, yet again, in these pictures.

We first got excited about a Japanese exotic with the debut of the LF-A concept at the 2005 North American International Auto Show in Detroit. Lexus showed a supercar with a front/mid-mounted 5.0-liter V-10 designed to exceed 500 horsepower to tell the world it was serious about adding a performance variant. At the time, Lexus officials stirred the pot, saying a hybrid-electric powertrain also was a possibility.

But the LF-A was designed as a pure concept car, is how Bob Carter, Lexus Group vice-president and general manager, described the exercise that generated the kind of explosive reaction that prompted engineers to keep working on it, sanctioned or not.

Meanwhile, the design studios were preoccupied with development of a new language, dubbed L-Finesse, to give some familial ties to Lexus sedans. And although the LF-A had no shortage of fans, its styling did not conform.

So the LF-A was tagged for a remix and enjoyed a second coming out at the 2007 Detroit show??”same engineered platform and unique powertrain (we still don??™t know if hybrid references are a red herring) but ???L-finessed??? to the extent that the styling has grown more intricate with sculpted panels and sharp edges giving way to curves.

Comparing this prototype with past concepts, the square cooling vents that dominated the back end of the 2005 concept remain, integrated into the tail, and the triple exhaust outlets, grouped in a triangle in the rear fascia, continue to serve as a focal point. The lower side vents and front air intakes are in line with the most recent concept, and above the intakes are simple, angular headlights. Lexus is keeping a few secrets under wraps, with styling cues still hidden under tacked-on taillights. We hope the end result remains truer to the 2007 concept. The fixed rear wing on this latest prototype is not as massive as on prototypes caught testing a year ago.

In January, Carter said the latest concept was not drivable but was closer to a production model. Obviously, it is more than drivable now, captured lapping the Nordschleife at the N??rburgring in Germany, which hopefully means our vigil is nearing an end. The hope is that this is the final design??”we??™d like to see the production model make its formal bow in October at the Tokyo auto show.

We look forward to the day Lexus is swimming in flagships, what with three versions of its LS sedan and the LF-A supercar. The LF-A also will mark the expansion of the F-series that will officially launch later this year with production of the IS-F sports sedan that goes on sale in January as a 2008 model. It will have a 5.0-liter DOHC V-8 under the hood producing more than 400 horsepower and 350 pound-feet of torque. The LF-A, which Lexus claims will have a 200-mph top speed, would be the perfect second vehicle for the series, followed by a GS-F. But we get ahead of ourselves.

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Toyota??™s colossal Land Cruiser and Lexus??™s luxury spin-off, the LX470, have outlived some of their smaller stablemates by two lifecycles. In New York, Lexus finally shows the replacement for its aging ute, the LX570 which goes on sale in early 2008.

As the name implies, the old 4.7-liter, 268-hp V-8 has been replaced by the new 5.7-liter iForce mill from the Tundra pickup, which shames its predecessor with an impressive 381 hp and 401 lb-ft of torque. This engine manages to whip the Tundra to 60 mph in just 6.1 seconds, a feat that the LX should come awfully close to matching. Of course, the downside is conspicuous consumption??”figure fuel ???economy??? numbers in the low teens around town. The six-speed slushbox from the Tundra replaces the five-speed in the old truck. Towing capacity is up 2000 pounds to 8500.

The skin of the LX470 was as much in need of an update as the engine compartment, and that hasn??™t been overlooked. But, we’re not exactly smitten with the LX570’s new sheetmetal, which makes it looks somewhat like a bloated Toyota Highlander. The trapezoidal grille remains as upright as ever, but the odd dual-headlights are gone, replaced by more graceful lamps better matching the rest of the Lexus lineup. In the lower half of the front valance, the hard corners of the fog-light housings and the lower air intake have been rounded and smoothed for a more contemporary look. Gone, too, is the awkward lower-body cladding with its clumsy running boards, replaced by cleaner sheetmetal and gracefully integrated steps. At this stage, Lexus appears unprepared to match Cadillac??™s offering of 22-inch wheels on the Escalade, venturing only as high as 20 inches.

Likewise, the interior of the LX570 has been updated to bring it into harmony with other Lexus interiors. The gauge cluster gets updated with a small, rectangular information display in the center and a small gauge on each corner. Flanking the center cluster are a large, round speedo and a tach. The button-intensive center stack is coated in silver plastic like other Lexii, and the transfer case shifter has finally become a button, following suit long after much elegant vehicles gave up on the baseball bat.

Underneath, the LX570 rides on a new global body-on-frame platform that will also underpin the upcoming Toyota Land Cruiser and, Lexus claims, shares nothing with the Tundra. It has the same 112.2-inch wheelbase as its predcessor, but the eight possible occupants will be thankful that its four inches longer and an inch wider on the inside. The suspension is a new cross-linked electro-hydraulic setup that drops the truck two inches for entry and exit. At highway speeds, it lowers the LX by an inch in front and a half-inch in rear for better aerodynamics. Lexus claims that this new suspension reduces body roll by a much-needed 30 percent in the LX570.

Four-zone climate control will allow both front occupants and the outboard second-row passengers to choose their own temperature. Optional fineries include keyless entry and ignition, power-folding second- and third-row seats, a ???cool box??? center console for chilling beverages (although we don??™t yet know if it will be refrigerated as Land Rover??™s is), XM radio with real-time traffic information, a nine-inch rear screen for watching DVDs, and a 19-speaker Mark Levinson stereo. There’s also a blindspot warning system that uses cameras in the grille and under the side mirrors.

Lexus always focused more on off-road capability with the LX470 than it seemed it should. The new LX570 is no different, with a Range Rover like arsenal of off-road adaptivity programming including height-adjustable suspension, Multi-Terrain ABS said to reduce stopping distances on sand and gravel, and ???Crawl Control,??? which numbs the throttle sensitivity for better modulation during the precarious off-road maneuvering no Lexus will ever be subjected to, no matter how well equipped.

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There was always something wrong with all the earlier attempts by Lexus to make a BMW 3 Series. First, the IS 300 came onto the market with rear-wheel drive but an automatic. Then it got a manual but came with an intrusive stability program you couldn??™t turn off. When the stronger 306-hp, 3.5-liter IS 350 came out, it again had an automatic but no stick.

Now, the mighty IS F, so powerful it doesn??™t even get a number in its name, comes with a monstrous V8 and rear-wheel drive, and while it does have an eight-speed automatic transmission, it is such a good automatic transmission that you don??™t even care that there is no manual. And the stability program comes with an off button that now, finally, stays the F off.

But first, what is an IS F, anyway? You may remember the one-off, V8-powered IS 430 made four years ago by racer-turned-engineering-guru Rod Millen (???Muscle Car Mania Hits Lexus,??? AW, Dec. 22, 2003). At that time, the biggest sports sedan in the Lexus lineup was the 3.0-liter straight-six IS 300. Dropping a big V8 into this relatively small car followed the age-old hot-rodder engine-swap formula that gave us the Pontiac GTO and a host of other very fun cars.

One year later, an engineer in Japan, Yukihiko Yaguchi, approached product planners with his idea for the IS F. Breaking with tradition, wherein product planning does all the thinking up of ideas, product planning gave Yaguchi the green light. But no budget.

So Yaguchi recruited 100 to 300 of what the Lexus press department called ???speed-crazy rogue engineers??? and went to work. By begging, borrowing and cajoling everything from wind-tunnel time to finite element analysis, he eventually built what you see here.

Let??™s talk about that 5.0-liter V8. Yaguchi didn??™t want a turbo-charger to get power, because it lacked linearity. He laughed out loud when we asked if a V10 would fit. Yes, it would, he said, but it??™s way too expensive and heavy. The engine he started with was the 4.6-liter V8 from the LS and the GS. Working with Yamaha, Yaguchi??™s team stroked it a quarter-inch to get the displacement up to 5.0 liters. Adding the stroke made it less undersquare, giving it inherently better low-end torque. Improve-ments to the heads by Yamaha gave it high-end horsepower. It now produces 416 hp and more than 371 lb-ft of torque, numbers that make the old IS engine look like a weed whacker.

It has many unique features not found on the LS and the GS, such as dual air intakes, coolers for engine oil and trans fluid and even a cylinder-head scavenge pump so all the engine oil won??™t get stuck up in the heads during high-g cornering. There are two fuel injectors per cylinder??”one more or less normal port injector and one high-pressure direct injector. Below 3200 rpm, intake air comes from a single opening at the grille; above 3200, a second intake opens inside the engine bay to increase flow. The titanium intake valves are electrically variable on the intake side, while a hydraulic system controls the steel exhaust valves. Valve lift, while high, stays the same. The changes allow for a redline of 6800 rpm.

Aft of the V8 is what Lexus says is the world??™s first eight-speed sport direct-shift transmission. It, too, starts life as the unit from the LS. In this application, the torque converter locks in second through eighth gears in manual mode for more efficiency. The paddle-shift manual mode holds each gear to the 6800-rpm redline. Upshifts take a tenth of a second, the fastest for a production transmission, Lexus says. Downshifts come with a blip of the throttle for smoothness.

The new car weighs 3780 pounds, only 250 more than the standard IS, so there is more than enough power to weight. Balance is 54/46 front/rear.

To get the most from the powertrain, Yaguchi tightened up the suspension throughout. First, he lowered the whole ride by an inch and stiffened the front springs by 9 percent over the IS 350 and the rears by 50 percent. Shocks and bushings are much firmer, antiroll bars substantially thicker. The rear suspension control arms are unique to the IS F to get the most from the forged 19-inch aluminum wheels. Tires are 168-mph-Y-rated Michelin Pilot Sport PS2s or Bridgestone Potenzas, 225/40 front and 255/35 rear, on 19-inch wheels. Brembo disc brakes are 14.2 inches in front with six-piston calipers and 13.6 inches in back with two-piston calipers.

Here??™s the part where Lexus finally got it: Vehicle Dynamics Integrated Management (VDIM), which keeps you from killing yourself and your car, or makes it a little harder, can be turned off. You can finally do donuts all day long. A mode switch has normal, sport and snow settings. The sport mode increases effort and weight of the electric power steering, raises shift points in the transmission, quickens the throttle response rate and allows more lateral movement before VDIM steps in.

The goal was not to make a BMW M3, Yaguchi said, though many people will see it as such.

???The M3 is fun for a really good driver, but if you??™re not a really good driver, it??™s not fun,??? he said. ???This is a car everyone can enjoy; with this car, your skill level doesn??™t matter.???

Thank goodness. They were about to turn us loose on Mazda Raceway at Laguna Seca. At first, we rode with instructors from the Skip Barber School. Reminded that you actually accelerate into turns three and six and brake a little in nine and a lot going into 11, we set out on our own.

It performed exactly as advertised. It was safe, fun and, even with VDIM off, still stable. Power was prodigious and delivered in a linear fashion. At Laguna Seca, we were able to use everything from third to sixth gear, with a few attempts to get down into second when we entered turn four too slowly.

Coming over the terrifying crest under the bridge at start/ finish, the car remained stable, despite the loss of some of the gravity it had on the rest of the course. Braking was stable, too, especially going into one, where you don??™t want anything funny to happen. The hard-core will miss the ultimate truth of an all-out sport suspension. This one is softer than the previous M3??™s, for instance. But it is a tradeoff we could live with.

Upshifts were indeed impressive, though we didn??™t time them to the tenth of a second. Banging the paddle shifters up along the main straight, we felt like Helio Castro freaking Neves. And the way the throttle blipped on downshifts, we felt like Schuey himself, though his and everyone??™s trannies nowadays do everything for them.
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Body roll in corners was not a problem??”in fact, it was almost unnoticeable??”and the tires never seemed to let go. We saw others powersliding coming out of turn 11, but we never got the rear end out of line, even while trying to figure out how much braking to add on the downhill left-hander of turn nine.

Later that day, we took an IS F over Laureles Grade and up G16 for quite a distance, over turns that tightened up suddenly and on a road surface that could use a few fresh layers of asphalt to be brought up to FIA standards. Although we dodged the worst of the bumps and holes, we couldn??™t miss them all, and the IS F did not shudder or jar us when we whacked them.

It is a car you can drive comfortably at Laguna Seca or to work. As Yaguchi said, your skill level doesn??™t matter.

So, what is the market level for the IS F?

???This is definitely not aimed at anyone buying our cars now,??? said then-Lexus vice president Jim Farley.

The average ES buyer is 61 years old. The IS buyer is in the low 40s. We figure the IS F will pull that average down a lot.

Lexus cleverly chose to reveal its IS F just before BMW revealed its M3. Or was that pure coincidence? In either case, everyone??™s stories about the Lexus IS F will come out before everyone??™s other stories about the M3. This will allow people to view the IS F separately as a sports sedan unto itself. In such context, it is an unbridled success. Against the M3, we??™ll have to wait and see.

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