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2022 Lexus IS 350 F Sport Road Test | A trip through mid-Ohio, from Mid-Ohio

LEXINGTON, Ohio — That feeling of driving inspiration I tend to get after a long day of watching racing hits me hard. Hours of observing others — professional racers — tear it up on track always leaves me with a desire to do the same, which in reality, is a dangerous feeling to have. Outside those racetrack grounds are public roads with speed limits, other motorists and a million other factors. Nevertheless, IÂ’m feeling rather giddy in the 2022 Lexus IS 350 F Sport after leaving the Lexus Grand Prix at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. Lexus invited me down to watch the race where a pair of Lexus RC Fs run by Vasser Sullivan Racing were competing. I rode along for a hot lap in a modified IS 500 F Sport Performance with one of the teamÂ’s pro drivers between races, and while that carÂ’s V8 is rather intoxicating, I still find myself really digging the 3.5-liter V6 in the humble IS 350 F Sport on OhioÂ’s winding back roads. Before leaving the track, I check the box on Google Maps to “avoid highways,” and point the IS down any road vaguely heading in the right direction that looked curvy in search of somewhere to enjoy LexusÂ’ recently-updated sport sedan. Being the F Sport model, there is some hope for fun. All IS 350 F Sports get a unique (and louder) exhaust, 19-inch wheels, larger 265-section-width rear tires, a cold air intake and an interior “sound generator” that pumps some extra noise into the cabin. What this car doesnÂ’t have, is the Dynamic Handling Package available on IS F Sport models. This adds an adaptive suspension and lighter BBS forged wheels. Additionally, this IS is the all-wheel-drive version, so it doesnÂ’t have the Torsen limited-slip rear differential or the extra-sporty “Sport S+” drive mode available on the rear-wheel-drive version. Despite this IS 350 F Sport being in mildly sporty dress, the trip starts out on a promising note. Much of the happiness derived from driving this sedan comes courtesy of its naturally aspirated V6 engine. It puts out a healthy 311 horsepower and 280 pound-feet of torque, good enough for a 0-60-mph sprint of 5.7 seconds. Peak power is made at 6,600 rpm, which means you need to keep the pedal buried and work for the acceleration.  Others in this sport sedan class have long since made boosted four-cylinders the go-to powertrain, making this naturally aspirated engine a breath of fresh air.

Lexus LC Convertible might be revealed at the Goodwood Festival of Speed

Lexus reportedly has plans to reveal a Lexus LC Convertible at this year's Goodwood Festival of Speed. The news comes from a Roadshow report, citing multiple, anonymous Lexus sources. One is right to be skeptical, but an LC Convertible seems likely after seeing the concept revealed at the Detroit Auto Show at the beginning of the year. We liked what we saw back in January, and the "concept" looked nearly production ready. Lexus hinted a production version may be on the way, and it looks like we might see the delivery of that car in early July. The Goodwood Festival of Speed runs July 4-7. That concept car was missing a roof, but we imagine Lexus will be fitting a space-saving soft top for the production car. Space is limited in the LC500's small trunk, and a bulky hard top would just about kill it entirely. However, the gorgeous lines of the LC500 will most likely suffer from such a top — it's pretty much impossible to replicate the coupe's sweet lines and styling with a fabric top. The idea of an LC Convertible is sound, though. It makes sense for Lexus to take advantage of the beautiful and exotic design of the LC500 for more models, especially as BMW dives head first into this arena with multiple flavors of the 8 Series. As convertibles typically are, we'll expect this one to be more expensive and slower than the coupe. The LC500 starts at $93,325, including the $1,025 destination charge. Lexus says acceleration to 60 mph with the 5.0-liter V8 takes 4.4 seconds. We wouldn't be surprised to see a price tag arching over $100,000, and a couple tenths knocked off that 0-60 mph time with an inevitably heavier car. The Goodwood Festival of Speed is as good a place as any to reveal something like an LC Convertible. We'll be on the grounds in England when the time comes, so check back to see if Lexus decides to pull the covers off in a few weeks.

Junkyard Gem: 1990 Lexus LS 400

Imagine you're an American Mercedes-Benz salesman during the winter of 1989-1990, looking over your inventory of majestic W126-chassis 560 SELs… and then you glance across the street at that brand-new Lexus dealership and flinch at the sight of your rivals gloating over a lot full of futuristic-looking big luxury sedans priced at less than half the cost of your top-of-the-pyramid S-Class. This was how it looked when mighty Toyota, riding high just before the popping of the Japanese asset price bubble, instantly muscled its way into the American high-end luxury-car market, and the result of that six-year, 145-billion-yen development process was the original Lexus LS. Here's one of those first-year LS 400s, used up at age 32 and residing in a Denver self-service car graveyard. Toyota had been selling reasonably luxurious rear-wheel-drive Cressidas in North America since the 1978 model year (in fact, Cressida sales would continue here through 1992), and before that we got the plush Crown. Those well-built cars were very comfortable and may have swiped a few sales from Oldsmobile or even BMW, but car shoppers here had come to associate the Toyota brand with sensible small cars and Warlord Grade trucks. Honda did very well selling luxed-up Accords and Civics with Acura badges, starting in 1986, and Toyota followed up with the Lexus brand for the LS 400 (as well as the Camry-based ES 250). In Japan, where the Toyota badge went on everything from sewing machines to the Emperor's personal Century (actually, Emperor Akihito's everyday driver was a Honda Integra sedan), there was no need for a separate luxury marque and the LS 400 was sold as the Toyota Celsior. Once the Lexus brand took off globally, however, Toyota eventually began using it for home-market vehicles. You can even buy a new Lexus bicycle in Japan today! The Cressida had a big straight-six engine, but the LS had to have a proper twin-cam V8 to do battle with the S-Class, BMW 7-Series, and Audi V8 (yes, the 7-Series didn't get a V8 until later, but the 750i had a V12). Toyota had been building aluminum-block hemi-head V8s for the Crown Eight and the Century since the middle 1960s, but that was an old-fashioned pushrod design and clearly too outdated for the LS. The LS got a 4.0-liter DOHC V8, designed from scratch just for the occasion; it had six-bolt main bearing caps and made 256 horses in the 1990 version.