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2022 Lexus LC 500, 500h introduce Bespoke Build exclusive options

Lexus has announced the 2022 LC 500 coupe, 500h hybrid coupe and LC 500 Convertible. The changes are as subtle here as they were on the LS 500. The coupe's suspension has been "optimized to enhance ground contact feel, linear steering response and steering effectiveness [at] high G," we're told, and that's as close as we get to knowing what Lexus engineers did. After that, there are a few changes that could be spotted at ten feet. One is the Sport Package gaining a 21-inch forged alloy wheel to replace the 20-inch wheel for the 2021 LC 500 hardtop.  There's another revision to the Sport Package thanks to Lexus introducing its Bespoke Build program, which will open up a new menu of performance and cosmetic options. The current LC 500 Coupe offers two Sport Packages, one with a glass roof, one with a carbon roof. From 2022, the weaved lid will only be available to Bespoke Build buyers, which starts with a coupe fitted with the carbon roof Sport Package and the All-Weather Package. The customization choices will get their own configurator page come November 17, laying out exclusive color options like the Manhattenhenge interior and exclusive components like the carbon fiber rear wing and 21-inch forged alloy wheels that were previously limited to the LC Inspiration Series. Each Bespoke Build will also come with an interior badge and a certificate of authenticity. On the droptop side, there's been some additional suspension fiddling. On both coupe and convertible, the 11-strong color palette has been shaved to nine colors, Liquid Platinum and Obsidian going away. The 2022 LC 500 starts at $93,050 plus a $1,075 destination charge, for a total of $94,125, the convertible at $102,175 after destination, both unchanged for this year. The LC 500h MSRP gets goosed a touch, increasing $1,440 to $100,125. Related Video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

Lexus eschews production in China over quality concerns

One of the more popular trends in the auto industry is setting up production operations in China. Mainstream manufacturers like Ford, General Motors and Volkswagen have done it, and even luxury marques like Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz have or will soon have manufacturing ops in the People's Republic.
One company that isn't building cars in China, though, is Lexus. The Toyota-owned luxury brand still manufactures all of its vehicles in Japan (aside from a few RXs, which are built at a Toyota factory in Canada). According to Tokuo Fukuichi, Lexus just isn't ready to build cars there yet.
"The German Three have a brand image that they have cultivated over the past century in their long history, but Lexus is not in people's minds like that yet," Fukuichi-san told Reuters UK.

Lexus RC F GT3 Racing Concept is green-flag ready

Lexus is hardly the first brand that comes to mind when comes to motorsports. In fact, it's not even the first Japanese brand. But Toyota's premium marque is showing new signs of understanding that it will need to at least pay racing further lip service if it wants to be viewed as a more emotionally connected brand with the wherewithal to challenge the Germans on every level.
Lexus has already made it clear it wants to race its RC F coupe, and at least philosophically, the new model certainly strikes us as a more appropriate racecar conversion than the SC 430 that preceded it. This just-unveiled RC F GT3 Racing Concept looks properly menacing sitting on the carpet at the Geneva Motor Show, and it while it's officially labeled as a concept, it's a model Lexus promises will be made available to racing teams in 2015.
Designed run in Group GT3 events, this 2,756-pound coupe has a front-mounted V8 derived from the production RC F tuned to deliver over 540 horsepower. Lexus' plan is to commit to a season's worth of testing this year before building them to order, and we expect to see them in the Japan's Super GT and Super Taikyu Endurance series, along with endurance events like the 24 hours of Nürburgring.