2002 Lexus Sc 430 on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Lexus to use BMW 3.0-liter straight-six in next-gen IS sedan?

Here's a rumor so wild it needs a U.S. Fish and Wildlife permit. Japan's Best Car magazine reports that the next-generation Lexus IS will offer BMW's B58 3.0-liter inline-six as one of four powertrain options. That's the same engine found in the new Toyota Supra with 335 horsepower and 365 pound-feet of torque. What's more, the fourth-gen IS will resurrect the IS F model gone AWOL during the current third generation, and do it with the twin-turbo V6 from the Lexus LS 500. The current TTV6 makes the same 416 hp in the LS 500 as the 5.0-liter V8 did in the first Lexus IS F 12 years ago. According to the magazine, the other engine options would be Toyota's 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder, a 2.5-liter for a hybrid model, and a 2.4-liter turbo. We don't know where that last engine fits in. BMW doesn't make a 2.4-liter, and Toyota appears to have retired all of its 2.4-liter applications. Ignoring that, the 3.0-liter straight-six looks like it would replace the current 3.5-liter V6 rated at 311 hp and 280 lb-ft. This wouldn't be the first time the Supra's engine has been ported to the IS. Lexus mavens will remember that two years after the introduction of the original IS in 1998, Lexus put the Supra's 2JZ 3.0-liter straight-six engine in the IS 300 — without the turbochargers, thank you. But Best Car's prediction would have zero relation to history. Those were both Toyota engines back in 2000, and even ignoring the power differential, the IS didn't compete with the Supra. Putting BMW's 3.0-liter in the Z4 and the Supra works because they are the same car. And again, even ignoring the power differential, the more powerful Z4 doesn't compete with the Supra. Best Car's scenario has BMW selling one of its best engines for use in a direct competitor to the 3 Series. Lexus would need to design an engine bay long enough to swallow an inline-six, not a bread-and-butter engine for the brand, yet still be sensible for three more compact powerplants. Then, assuming BMW and Toyota made the same deal as with the Z4 and Supra, the Lexus would be down by a healthy double-digit horsepower margin on its German foe. The new Supra gives up 47 hp to the roadster. Where's the upside? It's said the trim sedan will stay about the same size, on a wheelbase roughly four centimeters longer, but lose a substantial chunk of weight.

Lexus really put the spindle grille on its imaginary 'Men in Black' jet

There is a large constituency of people who do not like — hate, even — Lexus' signature spindle grille. But Lexus likes it, A LOT. So much so, that the company included the spindle design into its newest conceptual design study, the Lexus QZ 618 Galactic Enforcer Jet that will appear in "Men in Black: International." The two official trailers for the upcoming MIB reboot revealed that Lexus had a hand in the films. In the second, we even see a Lexus RC F transforming into an aircraft, a call back to Will Smith's and Tommy Lee Jones' flying car in the original. But this is the first full look at the fictional vehicle, which will be used by Tessa Thompson and Chris Hemsworth. Lexus had some fun with this and put out a press release detailing all of the Galactic Enforcer Jet's features. Lexus says it wears Umbra Black, the darkest black in the entire universe, and uses Hybrid Transformer Technology. Its Quasar Power Source2 Technology was secured through a secret alien knowledge swap and uses power from the closest Active Galactic Nucleus3 for universal travel. The propulsion system is named after Black Hole TON 618. The stats on this machine are pretty impressive. It gets 122 millennia per gallon, does zero to 60 in 0.0000000000001 nanoseconds, and has light-speed-matching capabilities. Drivers sit in intergalactically sourced and ethically spawned Adorian leather and have the choice of three drive modes: EcoDrive, SportDrive, and QuantumDrive. Further convenience and safety features include Amazon Alexa (which understands seven trillion alien languages), infinite scaling technology, gamma ray headlamps, an Inter-Galactic Positioning System, transforming seats with a 31-point safety harness, and the Lexus Safety System + with force field technology. In regards to styling, the jet has the Enforcer Package and can be ordered in six other colors. Check out the jet in action in "Men in Black: International" on June 14. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

Google shares more details on self-driving car accidents

Google has pledged to release monthly reports on the status of its self-driving car program, and says these updates will include information on accidents involving the vehicles. But the company won't release the actual accident reports, a sore point for activists who recently have clamored for the company to be more transparent in the way it tests this promising technology on public roads. "Google is dribbling out bits of information in the hope to silence legitimate calls for full transparency," said John Simpson, privacy director for Consumer Watchdog, a nonprofit that has asked Google to release reports from the 12 accidents the company says it has been involved in over the past six years. "They are testing on public roads, and the public has a right to know exactly what happened when something goes wrong." Under California law, the accident reports are not considered public records. Google has attributed all accidents to human error, and says drivers of the other cars involved caused 11 of the 12 accidents. In eight of those, the Google cars were rear-ended, and the autonomous vehicles were sideswiped in two other crashes. One of the accidents occurred at an intersection when a human driver failed to yield at a stop sign, and in one incident, a Google driver accidentally rear-ended another car while manually driving. Google had previously provided those details. The first monthly report installment sheds new light on which types of self-driving vehicles were involved, directions of travel, locations, and whether the cars were operating in autonomous or manual mode. Update: Google says this information comes directly from the OL 316 forms used to report accidents involving autonomous cars in California, though it has "edited the summaries lightly to protect other drivers' information." But Google still will not release the original OL 316 forms, nor the "traffic collision report" forms used in California to report accidents. Another company that has been involved in a single self-driving car accident, Delphi Automotive, has released this information, which verified its car was not at fault. Regarding Google, Simpson said, "We now know a few more details of what happened. The problem is that it's Google's version and they want us to take their word for it." The Google self-report adds information that goes beyond accidents, with further details on the company's overall program.