While Toyota
has been making cars for sport racing for about 60 years, Lexus
is a far newer division of the company and didn’t start developing proper sports cars until the late 2000s. Since then, cars like the IS F-Sport
and LFA have proven that Lexus can in fact produce sporty cars as well as luxurious ones. Nowadays, you can find stylish, sporty versions of many Lexus models. The carmaker is churning out newer sports coupes for luxury driving enthusiasts with a serious need for speed.
Here with a guide to Lexus sports cars—from the original F1 LS 400 to the modern LC Coupe—is Jerry
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Does Lexus make sports cars?
Yes—Lexus makes sports cars. Lexus released its first sporty model in 2012 and came out with two more in 2022.
Here are all the Lexus sports cars you should know:
2012 Lexus LFA
Only 500 cars were manufactured worldwide during the 2012 Lexus LFA’s one-year production run. They were meant to be a statement that Lexus—not just its parent company Toyota—could make competitive sports cars. The result was one of the best supercars of the decade.
It was packed with a 4.8-liter V10 engine that could produce a ridiculous 552 horsepower at 8,700 rpm and 354 pound-feet of torque at 6,800 rpm. All of this was controlled by a highly customizable six-speed automated sequential gearbox.
For the audiophiles, one of the most lovable things about the Lexus LFA was how much time was spent perfecting the sound of its exhaust. The automaker literally tuned the car like a musical instrument to provide the most aesthetically pleasing volume and tone entering the cabin from the car’s insanely powerful engine.
From a visual perspective, the LFA looked futuristic, with small headlights, big 20-inch wheels, low side-rear air intakes, and an overall beautifully streamlined aerodynamic shape.
Did we mention that it could go from 0 to 60 mph in a mere 3.6 seconds? Oh, and these bad boys started at an MSRP of$375,000 and have since only increased in value—a further testament to the fact that Lexus’ official first foray into sports car design was a blazing success.
2022 LC 500
While the base model may not quite amount to a full-on sports car, the Sport Package and Dynamic Handling Package for the Lexus LC 500 definitely manage to elevate it to true sports car status.
The LC’s 5.0-liter turbocharged V8 engine is a modern take on a traditional form and once again tuned to deliver the most pleasing engine sound to the cabin. It achieves 471 horsepower at 7,100 rpm with its 10-speed automatic transmission.
The LC 500 is available as a coupe or a convertible, and the coupe is available as a hybrid, equipped with a 3.5-liter V6 engine combined with two electric motors and a 1.1 kWh lithium-ion battery. All versions are rear-wheel drive.
A 2022 LC 500 Coupe starts at an MSRP of $93,050, but a fully customizable Bespoke Build could add another $15,000 to that figure.
2022 Lexus RC F
The Lexus RC F is just as sporty as the supercar LC 500, but pricing starts at a slightly more attainable $65,720 for the RC F (F-Sport).
That being said, the most racetrack-ready version of the RC F-Sport is the Fuji Speedway Edition, which surpasses the $100,000 mark.
Lexus’ F-Sport sub-brand debuted as part of its 2007 lineup of the then-new Lexus IS and has since become the primary marker for the company’s sportiest vehicles.
The RC F models are available with the same 5.0-liter V8 as the LC.
A history of the Lexus sports car
These are just a few of Lexus’ notable sports car models, but Lexus has a few other models that have appeared throughout its history. Here’s a brief history of the development of Lexus’ sportiest car models.
1983: Eiji Toyoda issues an open challenge to build the best cars in the world. The project is code-named F1 or Flagship One.
1989: The Lexus LS 400 debuts as the product of Flagship One as Toyota’s luxury division’s flagship model, a luxury full-size sedan equipped with a 4.0-liter V8 engine.
1991: Lexus debuts the SC, a 2+2 coupe that just barely counts as a sports car, equipped with either a 3.0-liter I-6 or a 4.0-liter V8 engine. The SC became relatively adjacent to the Mark IV Toyota Supra, and its lower-trim I-6 won out as the preferred engine for racing modders.
2007: After a decade and a half of making luxury cars, some of which came close to being committedly sporty, Lexus introduces the F-Sport variant for the Lexus IS. This time, they’d finally made a full-on sports car.
2010: The Lexus LFA becomes Lexus’ first purpose-built sports car, a proper supercar with a 3.6-second 0 to 60 time and a 203-mph top speed.
How to save money on Lexus insurance
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