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Lexus designers create lunar transport concepts

NASA is working to put human back on the moon by 2024, the idea being to use it as a way station for the eventual colonization of Mars. Since those humans won't want to moonwalk everywhere, they'll need new transportation — the battery-electric Lunar Rover the Apollo astronauts left up there probably won't start. Designers at the European Advanced Design Studio for Toyota and Lexus created a few potential, and yes, fanciful, craft for getting around our satellite for Document Journal magazine's The Lunar Design Portfolio. The artwork joins a collection of articles by culture critics, philosophers, architects, and more about the issues confronting humanity's return to the mistress of tides. Out of the seven concepts, the Lexus creation chosen to appear in the issue is Karl Dujardin's Zero Gravity, which turns the automaker's spindle grille into a single-seater moto-like hovercraft capable of doing 310 mph. The Bouncing Moon Roller by Julien Marie attaches a wheel-like stabilizer to a gyroscope cell protected by a flexible graphene nanotube bubble meant for hopping over the terrain, whereas the Lexus Lunar Cruiser by Keisuke Matsuno serves land and sky by having wheels that can flip out 90 degrees to serve as ducted fans powering a drone capsule. Jean-Baptiste Henry's Lexus Cosmos isn't for the surface at all, with a Lexus mothership and Moon Explorator capable of solar system travel. The glass construction of the observatory in the Moon Explorator allows "group experience contemplation [of] Zero G," and there's even a "space swimming pool." The Mothership awaits a role in the next installment of A Space Odyssey, a glossy habitat for whatever life forms succeed humans. Astronauts might be able to launch from the mothership in the Lexus Lunar Mission craft designed by Yung Presciutti, using wings shaped like spindle grilles. Because all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy even in space, the Lexus Lunar is a 6x6 "massive transport vehicle designed to explore and discover the moon safely," meaning it can haul a few Moon Racers — both of which are also Presciutti's work —  a different kind of single-seater craft made to "jump, climb, race, and discover" the light and dark sides of the moon.

Are Toyota and Lexus planning to use Mazda's straight-six and new platform?

Japan's Best Car magazine has what appears to be a whopper of a rumor. The mag said it scooped Mazda's development of a straight-six engine that Mazda only revealed in March, the carmaker having buried the information in a financial statement. By way of Lexus Enthusiast and according to Google translate, Best Car writes that as it was speaking to a Toyota source on an unrelated matter, the magazine found out that Mazda's work on the straight-six was predicated on the engine's use in Toyota Group vehicles, which includes Lexus. Here's the account of how the engine and Mazda's coming front-engined rear-drive platform, dubbed "Large Architecture," will make their way to Toyota City: The first appearance for the straight-six, predicted to come in at a hair under 3.0 liters, is the Mazda Atenza/Mazda6 successor coming around 2022. The powertrain will get a 48-volt hybrid system for increased fuel economy, and the automaker's said to be considering a plug-in hybrid version. Toyota's first shot at the platform and the straight-six will be whatever fills the slot of the Japanese-market Mark-X sedan. We once had a version of the Mark-X in the U.S. as the Toyota Cressida. In Japan, it's sold as a rear- and all-wheel drive option to the Camry. The Mark-X is slated to end production in December this year — a "sporty four-door coupe" on Mazda's platform and with Mazda's engine eventually taking its place. Lexus has a number of plans for the components from Hiroshima. The next Lexus IS is said to evolve from the current sedan, using a Lexus V6 but migrating to Toyota's TNGA platform. Best Car says the IS after that, perhaps sometime around 2026, will hop onto Mazda's new platform and use the inline-six engine. Before that, the replacement for the Lexus RC in 2022 will sit on the Mazda platform and get that inline-six. What's more, Lexus will introduce a new model to slot between the $64,750 RC and the $92,950 LC employing Mazda's architecture and engine. Best Car says the model will act as a "next car" for RC owners, but we can't tell if the magazine means a two-door or a four-door coupe; the article also says the Lexus model will compete with the Audi A7. Toyota and Mazda partnered up in 2016 on technology sharing. Best Car's take is that, as was done on the Supra, Toyota is picking up all the tech it can from suitable sources so that it can continue to sell models that don't make sense to develop alone.

Check out this awesome Lexus manga art with exploding cities and dragons galore

Lexus just did something a bit different, and it has to do with manga art. The headliner piece is the Lexus LC 500 with the masked warrior crouching on top of it, seen above. We think it's objectively awesome, as the car autonomously races away from an exploding city. The LC 500 was drawn by Bulgarian artist Daniel Atanasov. He says it's "heavily influenced by Japanese culture. The main character is wearing an oni mask, which in Japan are worn at festivals to protect from evil spirits. He is holding a nodachi sword (a type of Samurai sword), and the pose of the character has been influenced by martial arts." Atanasov says the LC 500 is self-driving, controlled by the character on top of the car. Next up is a drawing of a Lexus ES driving amongst dragons. We're not so sure how long the car will last in that landscape ... perhaps an LX 570 would be the more prudent choice for bombing through a rocky desert. This one blends manga with classical paintings from the west, making it more of a hybrid. It was drawn by Tim Kong — he says he chose to draw dragons in order to "highlight the brave design of Lexus cars." Lexus' last commission is of the UX. This one is much simpler, with fewer things going on in the background. There is simply a girl and her Lexus UX in the dunes as the sun sets. It's rather calming and warm in nature compared to the first two drawings. The artist, Yishan Li, says she drew the UX like this because this is where she envisions taking it if she owned one.