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Junkyard Gem: 1992 Lexus SC 400

After Toyota stunned the automotive world with the Lexus LS 400 in 1989, offering a majestically engineered luxury sedan with an all-new DOHC V8 at less than half the cost of its Mercedes-Benz 560 SEL rival, what could be done to follow that (other than a money-printing Lexus-badged Camry, that is)? Clearly, the missing piece of the Lexus branding puzzle at the time was a sports coupe, something to extract the money of car shoppers considering, say, a new Mercedes-Benz 300 CE or Acura Legend coupe. That car turned out to be the Lexus SC, styled in California and known as the third-generation Toyota Soarer in Japan. Here's one of the very first SCs sold in the United States, found in a Denver-area self-service yard last month. These cars had intimidatingly good build quality (I know, because I dismantled a '92 SC 400 down to its smallest components a while back), clearly designed to last at least a quarter-million miles with routine maintenance. This one got hit hard in the right rear, however, and it wasn't worth repairing the damage to a non-SUV pushing three decades of age. Americans could buy a six-cylinder version, the SC 300, which came standard with a five-speed manual transmission (almost all buyers "upgraded" to the automatic, of course). This car is the SC 400, which means it has the same 1UZ-FE V8 engine as the LS 400. That's 250 super-smooth horses and six-bolt main bearing caps keeping the crankshaft from going anywhere it shouldn't. The SC 400 never was available with a manual transmission, nor was its SC 430 successor. This one has the mandatory Aisin-Warner four-speed automatic. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Lexus SC400 articulated door hinge operation The complex door hinges offered good clearance in tight parking spaces. These cars were very quiet and comfortable and they could cruise all day at triple-digit speeds, but a curb weight pushing 3,600 pounds meant that the SC 400 wasn't going to beat its Porsche 928 rival on a race track. Actually, the 1992 928S4 cost more than twice as much as the 1992 Lexus SC 400 ($80,920 versus $37,500) and had both a more powerful (326hp) V8 and available manual transmission; perhaps the 1992 Cadillac Eldorado Touring Coupe ($32,470, 200hp V8, automatic) was a more realistic sales rival for today's Junkyard Gem.

2019 Lexus ES 350 F Sport Quick Spin Review | Yet another Lexus surprise

The 2019 Lexus ES 350 F Sport truly cements that "driving like a Lexus" now means something far different than it ever did before. It's not dull, it's not anonymous and old ladies probably won't like it. It should not be painted pearlescent white. Instead, the new ES is genuinely engaging to drive, feeling every bit like it was spawned from the same gene pool as the lustworthy LC coupe and surprisingly sharp LS flagship sedan. I actually enjoyed driving it more than the BMW M550i, and I liked driving that car quite a bit. Seriously. No one is as surprised by that statement as the guy who typed it. It really comes down to what you feel through that F Sport steering wheel, through your heels planted in the floor below, and the seat of your pants that's now placed lower in a sportier driving position. The 2019 ES 350 is one of those cars that manages to shrink around you as you hustle it along, feeling much smaller than its full-size sedan dimensions would indicate. It may be based on the Avalon, but that car never felt as lithe and responsive as its Lexus cousin. The extra structural rigidity of the ES is part of the equation. Now, to be fair, the ES in question is the F Sport model fitted with the optional Adaptive Variable Suspension derived from the divine LC, which no doubt helps the dynamics compared to lesser ES trims. But judging by the impressions of others, plus the rest of Lexus' redone lineup, lower-trim ESs seem to drive well. Even the base cars come with novel swing-valve shock absorbers designed to ably soak up bumps while keeping things level around corners. The electric power steering motor has also migrated from the column to the rack – a sure fire way to improve steering feel. And that it does, plus Lexus has a knack of tuning the various steering settings (Normal, Sport and Sport+) to be subtle in their increase of effort. There's no overly stiff weighting to satisfy the notion that "sporty" steering equals "stiff" steering, as is often the case in cars with variable drive settings. Appropriately, I drove in Normal around town and in Sport+ on my mountain road evaluation route. The differences aren't night and day -- it still feels like you're driving the same car -- it's just been tweaked slightly for ideal performance. These drive settings also adjust the adaptive suspension, if so equipped.

Flower petal-covered Lexus UX 250h wins art car competition

We confess not to know the first thing about art, so perhaps we don't quite get why anyone would want to cover every inch of a Lexus UX250h with flower petals. It's not as if it's an easy thing to do. But not only has someone done it, the resulting car has actually won an art car competition sponsored by the luxury marque. Without the flower petals, the Lexus UX is actually a pretty sharp looking compact premium crossover. It wears the Lexus design language with its many crsip creases and angled lines better than most of its fellow L-badgers. In fact, we can think of others whose sheetmetal would look better under a veil of paper blossoms. The winning entry, created by a design outfit called Clap Studio out of Valencia, Spain, beat five other Lexus UX art cars to win the contest. It took artists Jordi Iranzo and Angela Montagud a month to attach the thousands of paper cutouts to the body. "Our concept is a Zen garden that represents a state of mind: calm, pure consciousness,” they explained. The duo also point out that the car looks very different depending on the light, as the petals reflect and cast shadows in varying directions. Other entrants included more traditional art cars, with elaborate paint jobs, textures, or random objects affixed to them. At least one appeared to be covered in actual, not abstract, flora. Only the winning proposal was actually built, it seems, so in real life only one UX was defiled (or beautified, depending on your taste). Again, we don't know much about art. Related video: