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Lexus sails the seas in luxury with its first-ever yacht

Lexus is taking its pursuit of luxury lifestyle offshore with a production version of its LY 650 yacht, revealed in Boca Raton last week. Now one can have an oceangoing Lexus to go with the LC 500 parked in the garage. Based on its Sport Yacht Concept revealed in 2017 and announced for production last year, the 65-foot yacht was developed with and built by Marquis Yachts LLC, which also adopted Toyota's latest manufacturing and quality assurance methods. The LY 650's styling was cooperatively penned with Nuvolari Lenard, which designs luxury yachts. Lexus and its partners designed the LY 650 with a high-tech hull that's a combination of lightweight but rigid CFRP (carbon fiber-reinforced plastic) and GFRP (glass fiber-reinforced plastic), to reduce weight without sacrificing structural integrity. The LY 650 is powered by dual Volvo Penta IPS1350 marine engines making 1,000 horsepower each, or buyers can choose 800 or 900 hp engines instead. The ship's master can even operate the LY 650 with a new LY-Link smartphone wireless connectivity system that controls the boat's functions and uses real-time information to assist navigation. Keeping seafarers entertained is an integrated Mark Levinson Surround Sound audio and entertainment system designed specifically for the LY 650 to offer "concert hall-like" acoustics in the main deck's salon. There are three decks: topside with secondary controls, salon on the main deck, and three cabins below that sleep six. "The LY 650 symbolizes the challenge taken by Lexus, which aspires to be a true luxury lifestyle brand, to venture beyond the automobile. A collaborative team between Toyota and Marquis Yachts introduced the Toyota Production System to the boat manufacturing facility to improve productivity and quality,” President Akio Toyoda said in a statement. “This allowed the Lexus "CRAFTED" philosophy of anticipatory hospitality and meticulous attention to detail to become a reality in the form of a luxury yacht. I am truly looking forward to seeing the advanced, high quality LY 650 display its beauty on the oceans across the globe. As a mobility company, we are pursuing new possibilities for mobility even on the sea." Lexus is not the only luxury automaker to hear the call of the sea: Porsche created a yacht, and there's a Bugatti Chiron sister ship along with the Mercedes Silver Arrow. Even Henrik Fisker has dabbled with yacht design.

Drive like a prince: Join us for a walk through Monaco's car collection

Small, crowded, and a royal pain in the trunk lid to drive into during rush hour, Monaco sounds like an improbable location for a huge car museum. And yet, this tiny city-state has been closely linked to car culture for over a century. It hosts two major racing events every year, many of its residents would qualify for a frequent shopper card if Rolls-Royce issued one, and Prince Rainier III began assembling a collection of cars in the late 1950s. He opened his collection to the public in 1993 and the museum quickly turned into a popular tourist attraction. The collection continued to grow after his death in April 2005; it moved to a new facility located right on Hercules Port in July 2022. Monaco being Monaco, you'd expect to walk into a room full of the latest, shiniest, and most powerful supercars ever to shred a tire. That's not the case: while there is no shortage of high-horsepower machines, the first cars you see after paying ˆ10 (approximately $11) to get in are pre-war models. In that era, the template for the car as we know it in 2023 hadn't been created, so an eclectic assortment of expensive and dauntingly experimental machines roamed whatever roads were available to them. One is the Leyat Helica, which was built in France in 1921 with a 1.2-liter air-cooled flat-twin sourced from the world of aviation. Fittingly, the two-cylinder spun a massive, plane-like propeller. Government vehicles get a special spot in the museum. They range from a Cadillac Series 6700 with an amusing blend of period-correct French-market yellow headlights and massive fins to a 2011 Lexus LS 600h with a custom-made transparent roof panel that was built by Belgian coachbuilder Carat Duchatelet for Prince Albert II's wedding. Here's where it all gets a little weird: you've got a 1952 Austin FX3, a Ghia-bodied 1959 Fiat 500 Jolly, a 1960 BMW Isetta, and a 1971 Lotus Seven. That has to be someone's idea of a perfect four-car garage.  One of the most significant cars in the collection lurks in the far corner of the main hall, which is located a level below the entrance. At first glance, it's a kitted-out Renault 4CV with auxiliary lights, a racing number on the front end, and a period-correct registration number issued in the Bouches-du-Rhone department of France. It doesn't look all that different than the later, unmodified 4CV parked right next to it. Here's what's special about it: this is one of the small handful of Type 1063 models built by Renault for competition.

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.