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RX is getting a 3rd row, extended wheelbase in Feb. Lexus has done a solid job keeping performance SUVs out of its market, and letting the RX do what it does best.
They don't sell very many LS Hybrids either, but they keep building them as well.
A LS F could be a decent platform depending if its performance is up to par for the price. The new LS will start at $75,000, just $2,500 over a current model and isn't expect to exceed $100,000 fully loaded. I would assume LS F to sit around $120,000. 4.5 seconds to 60 is what Lexus claims the upcoming car can do, so if the LS F comes with a TT V8 (hopefully boasting more than the standard 467Hp), it could be around 4 seconds flat. That'd be very quick for a big luxury sedan & put just behind the B7 & S63 AMG which would be in a pricing bracket above it.
As said, the RC was originally planned with a convertible in mind; the middle sub-frame is a IS-C. But, it's yet to come to fruition.
i was talking about from a business perspective. Regardless how good the LSF will be. It will not be selling many, and not many will pick it over M760i or S63/65.
So why not invest more $ and time in the 3/4/5 series segment. You work your way up.
Speaking of Toyota and boring, I was behind a 740Li and to his right was an LS460. It's night and day the styling. The LS had no indication aesthetically how it's in the same class with the 7.
i was talking about from a business perspective. Regardless how good the LSF will be. It will not be selling many, and not many will pick it over M760i or S63/65.
So why not invest more $ and time in the 3/4/5 series segment. You work your way up.
Again, that argument could be applied to the LS Hybrid. They still built them at $120,000 a piece. Both of those cars are not going to be competitors; they're in a higher price bracket as I said originally, in the $150,000 range. I don't expect anyone to pick a LS over those models if that's the kind of money you have to throw around.
They have already invested plenty of money into that segment. They have worked their way up. The whole point of the spindle & the major restyling was to break away from Toyota and not be seen as a retirement car.
Doors. In their simplest form, mere hinged slabs that open to allow things inside to escape outside. They also close to keep out the likes of wind, rain and verbal abuse. But when attached to cars, they can become a piece of theatre.
As ambitious car designers have long known, the novel placement of hinges offers an infinitum of door possibilities: they can rise to the heavens, bloom from the roof or even open backwards. But where tricksy doors are normally reserved for concept cars, or heinously expensive hypercars, back in 1987, BMW proved that didn’t have to be the case.
Choosing to garnish its Z1 – the German outfit’s first two-seat roadster since the achingly gorgeous 507 – with doors that retracted vertically into the side sills, BMW turned doors from a means of getting in and out of the dinky car into actual Paul Daniels-style magic.
Plus, having the ability to lower them while on the move – enabling the possibility of dragging your knuckles across cat’s eyes at 80mph – jaws instantly bounced off the floor when the car was first shown to the public at the 1987 Frankfurt motor show. Thirty years ago this month, then.
But the Z1 didn’t come from BMW central operations. Instead, it was a project designated to its new research subsidiary – BMW Technik – a forward-thinking offshoot of brainy people set up to be BMW’s crystal ball into the future. Its task was to deliver a two-seater sports car that was “creative, innovative and effective”. So it grabbed an E30 325i, ripped out all of its mechanicals, then worked out how to stuff them into a futuristic roadster.
Keen to experiment with new materials, the chassis is a zinc-plated monocoque (to improve torsional rigidity) with a bonded plastic floor pan. Shrouding that, individual body panels made of an elastic synthetic material (plastic, to you and me) that can all be pulled off in 20 minutes and built up again like a Kinder Egg toy.
And by ’eck did BMW Technik’s crystal ball work – 30 years later, the car still looks fantastic. With incredibly short overhangs, that curvaceous sloping bonnet and near-perfect proportions, it hides its age effortlessly. The tech is still relevant too. Things like the racecar-style flat undertray and aerodynamically shaped exhaust muffler to cut drag.
It’s impossible to drive without a smile, too. Well, with the roof and doors down – otherwise it feels like any other cabrio. But dropping those doors (which fall with the grace and violence of a Jenga tower) instantly adds a sense of humour and new dimension of wind buffeting to your journey.
With the front-mid-engine 325i lump kicking out 170bhp and 168lb ft of torque through a five-speed manual ’box, you’re urged to rev the straight-six out. With its weight of 1,250kg, plus decent rear-drive traction you’ll see 0–62mph in 7.9secs, and thanks to decent aerodynamics (with the roof up) a top speed of 141mph.
But the Z1 isn’t a car to thrash. It’s not concerned with being the fastest. It’s one of those golden cars that understands the fundamental elements of driving and rewards the driver by doing them well. The interior is simple. Four dash dials: fuel, speed, revs, engine temp. That’s it. The bare necessities. The camo seats are hilarious and supportive. The steering slow but feelsome. And with the doors dropped, speed is exaggerated and enjoyment maximised.
After a day of driving around feeling like a Nineties yuppie Berliner, I couldn’t help but feel some modern cars could learn a thing from the Z1. To simplify the fuss and focus on fun. Then add bizarre doors that are operable while driving. Which, in an era obsessed with addictive apps like Snapchat and Boomerang, now make more sense than ever.
speaking of the LS.... have you guys seen the new one? I saw one in person the other day, and as I was walking up to it from the rear (I didn't know what it was) - I kid you not I was thinking to myself "damn, Lexus is doing a Cayenne competitor???" The thing looks like a futuristic station wagon. Quite frankly I didn't like the styling direction, at all. I think it looks dreadful. The interior is nice. A far cry from the past years, actually the only LS models I really liked were the first gen and the 2012 style.
I suppose. The RC isn't one of our big sellers; you could be on to a reason why. I agree that they need to go back & start from scratch on that as well. Because of that weight, the car performs the exact same as the GS, yet the 4-door is typically, a more fun car to drive because of how they set it up. For me, it's no wonder the GS F was met with praise unlike the RC F & that's ignoring it being compared to the Germans. It feels more engaging, it sounds a little more menacing, it's just a perfect daily driver for someone who wants performance and needs cargo room. Not that the RC F is bad but considering the financial trade offs (RC Fs are cheaper, but hold higher residuals) I'd still side with the saloon.
With the TT V8 expected to be their power plant in the coming years, it'll be interesting to see if they swap the engine or design an entirely new RC generation to showcase it. The GS successor is rumored to take more of a BMW Gran Turismo style as an alternative to the reports that the model would be axed (due to the next gen. ES taking the styling as a smaller LS & thus, leaving the GS in an awkward position). We'll see if the TT V8 debuts it in as well.
I love the GS-F, I'd rock that in a heartbeat. The design language and form is so on point, all around. And, the name works, being from the classic Lexus line.
When it comes to estimating the performance of its cars, Porsche is surprisingly conservative. C/D often beats the company’s published zero-to-60-mph times in our testing, and it turns out that Porsche is no different when spitballing Nürburgring lap times. With the new 911 GT2 RS, Porsche guessed it could pull off a lap in less than seven minutes and five seconds—close to the production-car lap record of 6:52.01 held by Lamborghini’s Huracán Performante. How wrong it was.
The GT2 RS, at the hands of Porsche factory driver Nick Tandy and test driver Lars Kern, “immediately” lapped the Nordschleife in under six minutes and 50 seconds. And then it kept lapping at under six minutes and 50 seconds for another four laps. When all was said and done, Porsche’s best lap time of 6:47.3 stood as the new production-car lap record at the ’Ring. (That is, depending on your opinion of electric-supercar startup Nio’s 6:45.90 lap time and its status as a manufacturer; the company hasn’t specifically claimed that mantle.) Either way, the 700-hp GT2 RS is ridiculously fast—it averaged more than 114 mph during its lap—and Porsche brought along a notary to certify the lap time. The run was made on the GT2 RS’s standard Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tires.
Need some perspective on this achievement? The previous production-car lap-record holder, the Huracán, was newsworthy earlier this year for stealing that record from Porsche’s hybridized mid-engined, all-wheel-drive 918 Spyder hypercar. This rear-drive 911 resoundingly beat the 918’s time of 6:57. It crushed the 911 GT3’s 7:12.7 performance, too. Watch the video below for an idea of what this sort of speed at the Green Hell looks like:
I don't know how I feel about the LS yet, I think the previous gens were more my taste as they had an understated and elegant look to them. Then again I hated the current IS at first, then it quickly grew on me. I love it now.
Oddly enough, I actually don't like the chrome accents most of all. The rest of it might grow on me but I know the chrome won't. I guess that's where the F-Sport comes in, that looks a lot better.
More Nürburging news, you say? You betchya. Records don’t stay unbroken for long around here.
This time it’s the one for a production SUV, as the Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio has smashed a lap of the 12.9 mile Nordschleife in a record 7 minutes 51.7 seconds. That’s a full eight seconds faster than the previous production SUV record, held by the equally ballistic Porsche Cayenne Turbo. At the tail end of 2014, Porsche recorded a lap of 7m 59.74s, which in turn obliterated the record held by the Range Rover Sport. And you thought the hot hatch Nürburgring arms race was testy.
The Alfa’s time was set by Italian driver Fabio Francia, who had previously set the fastest Nürburgring track record for a four-door saloon in the Giulia Quadrifoglio, with a lap time of just 7min 32s. So yeah, he’s a bit handy.
For reference, the Stelvio is powered by an all-aluminum, direct-injection 2.9-litre 24-valve twin-turbo V6, delivering 503bhp and 442lb ft of torque, which is coupled with the Q4 all-wheel-drive system. The engine is paired to an eight-speed automatic transmission with specific settings for shifting in just 150 milliseconds in Race mode.
Fancy a crack at the Nürburgring in a Stelvio yourself? Yeah, thought not. For those still with us, the Stelvio Quadrifoglio will hit the UK market in 2018.
2018 accord seems like it is the best since the 90-93 models. Everybody is raving about it
“Way to go Honda—you just made Acura irrelevant.” Senior features editor Lieberman summed up our consensus view: “The new Accord feels like Hondas of old when Honda’s gave you that special something, that little extra, that secret sauce, that X factor. I have no qualms declaring the new Accord the best car in its class—the best in some other classes, too.”
Looking for a leather cleaner/conditioner. I used to use leatherique before but it's a pain to buy and I don't want to pay shipping. What's the new good one to use as I've been out of the detailing game for a while.
Looking for a leather cleaner/conditioner. I used to use leatherique before but it's a pain to buy and I don't want to pay shipping. What's the new good one to use as I've been out of the detailing game for a while.
been using Lexol conditioner and cleaner for 15 years
looks sick.
learned that on a lyft
