4 mannequin years is often “over the hill” for an automotive design. It’s when most automobiles have a mid-life disaster, get a facelift, and perhaps hit the fitness center to placed on some further muscle. However once you begin out life as attractive and fascinating because the Lexus LC, you don’t have to fret about such issues. Regardless that it debuted for 2018, the luxurious two-door coupe seems to be simply as recent, futuristic, and phenomenal as all the time.
Okay, to be honest, Lexus has up to date the 2022 LC ever so barely, with revised suspension tuning, new colours, and a “Bespoke Construct” possibility that enables patrons to match quite a lot of unique exterior and inside design decisions. The customization course of yielded the car you see right here, a 2022 Lexus LC 500 draped in attractive Nori Inexperienced paint over uncommon two-tone “Manhattanhenge” leather-based and Alcantara – suppose orange and black and also you’ll be shut. It’s not a conventionally fairly design, but it surely received me over after a day or two. The LC’s 5.0-liter V8, nevertheless, was love at first hear.
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There isn’t a denying the uncooked enchantment of the 2022 Lexus LC. Its proportions are fairly typical – lengthy hood, brief deck, low roof, two doorways – however in any other case, designers threw out the rule ebook. Triangular headlights sit in running-mascara nacelles, with a fancy, three-dimensional design for the Lexus-signature spindle grille. A personality line generates from the higher a part of the spindle, creating a pointy crease that flows over the hood and down the aspect of the automobile. Across the again, black mirrors abruptly illuminate purple or amber and switch into taillights. The choptop roof and triangular window openings solely add to the enchantment.
My tester’s uncommon, blade-style mounted carbon-fiber spoiler takes some getting used to, but it surely offers the luxury LC 500 some comedian ebook, Tremendous GT aptitude, and it’s in all probability how I’d order mine only for the sheer oddness of all of it. This explicit Bespoke Construct wears the usual 20-inch wheels, and so they look fairly good for a base possibility. However you’d be a nut to not order both of the elective 21-inch decisions, which fill the wheel wells and sit extra flush with the physique.
You may have your Lexus LC coupe in two flavors, and mine was the right one. The LC 500 comes with a 5.0-liter V8 producing 471 horsepower and 398 pound-feet of torque, permitting it to hit 60 miles per hour in a claimed 4.4 seconds. These numbers are enough for a flagship luxurious coupe, however they don’t actually stand out in a world of three.8-second Porsche 911s and Mercedes-AMG SL55s. What the numbers can’t convey about these turbocharged rivals is that they lack the high-rpm banshee shriek of the naturally aspirated Lexus mill, in addition to a low-speed woofle that reminds the neighbors who purchased a hybrid LC 500h that they coulda had a V8.
I can not overstate the subjective enchantment of a Lexus V8 winding out to its 7,300-rpm redline, making the excessive torque peak really feel like a sport to beat moderately than an impediment to beat. Serving to issues is a set of magnesium paddle shifters that command a responsive 10-speed computerized transmission, holding the quick-revving V8 within the meat of its admittedly slender energy band. That the chassis and steering are prepared to play is yet one more bonus when introducing the LC to a curvy highway.
With a stiff, well-controlled suspension and rubber-band tire sidewalls, you’d be forgiven for anticipating a back-breaking freeway experience out of the 2022 Lexus LC 500, in addition to some persistent drone from its snarling V8. And but the massive coupe someway delivers unimaginable poise on long-distance journeys. Regardless of the highway floor or pavement high quality, the LC soaks up bumps with well-damped polish and restricted physique motions, and the exhaust settles into near-silence till it’s time to cross that rolling roadblock up forward.
The hushed cabin can also be nearly faultless in its development. Luxurious leather-based and Alcantara covers the seats, with the suede-like materials additionally showing on the door panels and headliner. Almost each floor is well-padded, and accents just like the genuine-metal paddle shifters and dials guarantee your fingers are handled as properly as your different physique elements. Seat consolation is likewise first-rate, with glorious help and normal heating and air flow for the entrance passengers.
Cons
In some way, the Lexus LC’s design seems to be a long time forward of its time, however its tech suite was hopelessly outdated even again in 2018. In contrast to newer Lexus fashions, which characteristic ergonomic touchscreens, the LC hides its 10.3-inch show behind a pane of clear plastic, forcing the motive force to work together with a irritating trackpad as an alternative. Mercifully, there are just a few redundant controls for local weather and audio, however making something however rudimentary adjustments requires a visit by the infotainment system’s Byzantine menus. Adjusting the seat local weather controls, for instance, is a four-step course of on the trackpad, and working it whereas on the fly isn’t simple.
Moreover, the reversing digicam may use a serious decision bump, and there isn’t any forward-facing digicam in any respect, an issue given the LC’s lengthy and low nostril. You’ll should suss out parking blocks and curbs by telepathy as an alternative.
When you’ve had your enjoyable with the snap-crackle-popping V8, it’s time to pay the piper – nearly actually. Whereas the LC 500h’s 3.5-liter V6 and electrical motors can muster up 29 miles per gallon mixed, the V8-powered LC 500 can solely obtain 19 mpg (and that’s should you’re behaving). Drive just like the V8 needs to be pushed and also you’ll be fortunate to crack 15 mpg on a tank.
Nobody buys a luxurious coupe anticipating it to haul children and groceries round, but when they did, they’d discover little to like within the LC 500. When taking pictures of its impossibly attractive inside, I needed to fold myself into the again seat, the place I repeatedly launched the crown of my head to both the headliner or the rear glass. Knees and toes, in the meantime, are equally cramped, and the trunk gives simply 5.4 cubic toes of shallow area that may wrestle to carry an overstuffed carry-on. Consider the LC 500 as a two-seater, use the rear seats to carry your soft-sided baggage, and also you’ll be superb.