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Why is there a huge bulge in 2021 Lexus IS 300 AWD's driver footwell? We explain

After an initial turn a few weeks ago for the 2021 Lexus IS first drive review, the revised luxury sedan has returned to the Autoblog garage for a second look. This middle-of-the-road IS 300 AWD pairs a 260-horsepower V6 with a six-speed automatic transmission and four driven wheels, and frankly it's the least interesting way to spec out the redesigned sedan. While there are cars in this segment designed to get a performance boost from their all-wheel-drive systems even in dry conditions, the IS isn't one of them. Adding insult to injury, you get stuck with a cramped driver-side footwell care of the engineering shenanigans that went into making this system possible.  While we've mentioned this particular compromise before, we rarely touch on the reasons why it exists in the first place. The fundamentals are fairly obvious; the standard IS utilizes a longitudinal, rear-wheel-drive powertrain. As is typical with this configuration, the transmission sits in a tunnel beneath the center console. This arrangement works just fine, provided you don't need to power the front wheels.  To do so in a traditional car like the IS requires a literal end-around maneuver involving the engine and transmission, which we've diagrammed for you below care of MSPaint. This is a bit simplified for the sake of this write-up, and it should be noted that this is not the only way to implement AWD in an inherently RWD platform, but it illustrates how the power for the front axle (red) and rear axle (blue) flows from the transmission to the drive wheels. To get juice flowing to the front axle, Lexus had to add a parallel output shaft, exiting the transmission from the front with enough clearance for the bell housing and engine, which sits between the transmission and the front differential. This requires quite a bit of lateral reach, meaning the housing has to extend much farther out than usual to accommodate it (yellow arrow). As a result, the all-wheel-drive transmission looks a lot like a sci-fi gun with a chunky drum magazine hanging off the side of it. The hump (above right) in the footwell is there to clear this protrusion. This basic configuration isn't unique to Lexus. In fact, if you look at a BMW xDrive cutaway, it's similar. So, why no "hump" in other cars? There are multiple factors, but to boil it down to what is most relevant, it's a combination of the resulting shape of the Lexus transmission housing and the size of the IS chassis.

Award-winning Lexus Sport Yacht to get a production successor

Imagine driving along a coastal road in the evening sun, listening to Christopher Cross, Michael McDonald or some other very smooth singer usually associated with the tag "Yacht Rock". Perhaps a Lexus coupe could very well suit that soft rock mental imagery, with "Sailing" playing from its Mark Levinson audio as you cruise down the road in a laid-back fashion. But you could in fact be sailing in a Lexus-branded boat, too. Revealed a year ago, the Lexus Sport Yacht isn't just a badge-engineering job: it was created by Lexus Design, engineered by Toyota's Marine Division and built by the Wisconsin-based boat manufacturer Marquis-Larson Boat Group. The one existing example has just now been honored at the Yokohama International Boat Show, by Japan's Boat of the Year committee. As Toyota's Executive Vice President Shigeki Tomoyama accepted the award, he also announced production plans for a globally sold Lexus Yacht. "Based on our amazing experiences in engineering, building, testing and showing the Lexus Sport Yacht concept last year, we've decided to take the next bold step of producing an all-new larger yacht that builds on the advanced nature of the concept while adding more comfort and living space," Tomoyama said. "We plan to start sales in the U.S. in the latter half of 2019, with sales in Japan following in the spring of 2020." The new, 65-foot yacht will be built in partnership with Marquis-Larson, and more details of it will be revealed later. Related Video:

Lexus hints at possible IS SportCross comeback [w/poll]

We're looking forward to seeing the 2014 Lexus IS in person next week at the Detroit Auto Show to see if its brazen design is any less polarizing in person, but Lexus (or at least its Facebook team) has dropped a not-too-subtle hint about the possible return of the SportCross body style - something in between a hatchback and station wagon. The current generation IS comes in sedan and convertible models, but this is an interesting teaser that might suggest an expanded IS lineup.
On its Facebook page, Lexus said:
Do you remember the '02 IS 300 Sport Cross with its style, utility and performance? Will we bring it back? Watch the 2014 IS premiere on Facebook in 6 days to find out!