1997 Lexus Sc400 Coupe V8 4.0l Showroon Condition Perfect Gold Package 90 Photos on 2040-cars

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MT digs deep, learns more about hot Lexus RC coupe

As we patiently wait for the all-new Lexus RC to be unveiled at the Tokyo Motor Show in November, Motor Trend has dug up some tasty info on the Japanese automaker's new coupe for us to discuss. While we already knew some speculative, but credible, details on the upcoming two-door Lexus, MT reportedly has the dish on some details of the hotter RC F coupe (shown in the spy shots above).
The article says that the F will carry a six-figure MSRP and use a 455-horsepower, 5.0-liter V8 with cylinder deactivation, mated to an eight-speed automatic transmission. Carbon fiber body components will help reduce curb weight, and the scooped hood is said to optimize aerodynamics as the car will reach a top speed of around 186 miles per hour. Specific high-speed handling improvements include specially developed Brembo brakes, a beefed-up suspension, Michelin Pilot Sport PS2 tires and an automatic decklid spoiler.
As for other RC models, MT mentions the hybrid and V6 variants we already heard about, but it also says that the car could get a 2.0-liter turbo engine. This will probably be the engine used in the base model, which is expected to start at around $40,000. Head on over to Motor Trend for the full article, including a rendered image of the RC F.

2020 Lexus LC 500 Luggage Test | Hey, why not?

I will admit that I initially did this as a joke. A seemingly endless parade of SUVs had been passing through Autoblog Portland HQ, each of which was subjected to my luggage test. Then the 2020 Lexus LC 500 showed up resplendent in metallic Flare Yellow, a shade that attracted gazes like it was on fire. A couple stopped in front of my house and just chatted about it for a while. A little girl exclaimed, "Look, Mom, a fancy car! The yellow is so pretty!" Indeed, little girl, indeed. So really, I had the car, I had the luggage, I'd been doing the tests every week, so hey, what the hell? Turns out I was about to learn something. First thing's first: Open the trunk. It's a fobless process like nearly everything nowadays, but finding the button can be tricky. It's not adjacent to the license plate, rather, it's encased within the right taillight. Once found, you appreciate that it's both hidden and easily accessible.  Once open, there's 5.4 cubic feet of space in this V8-powered LC 500. The 500h hybrid has 4.7 cubes, which would be the same as a Porsche 911's frunk. However, when talking about such small volumes, the shape of the trunk counts for so much more than it would in trunks of larger numerical value. In fact, it can easily matter more than the cubic-foot total, as we're about to see. As a reminder, I use two midsize roller suitcases that would need to be checked in at the airport (26 inches long, 16 wide, 11 deep), two roll-aboard suitcases that just barely fit in the overhead (24L x 15W x 10D), and one smaller roll-aboard that fits easily (23L x 15W x 10D). I also include my wife's fancy overnight bag just to spruce things up a bit (21L x 12W x 12D).  Holy crap! That's the biggest bag and the biggest medium-sized bag. They fit easily and there's some room to spare for some odds and ends. I tried fitting that same big bag in my 1998 BMW Z3, which has a 5.0-cubic-foot trunk. That biggest bag doesn't come close to fitting, going to show the importance of trunk shape, which is particularly deep and wide in the LC, if fairly shallow. It could also fit two of the medium-sized bags and my wife's fancy bag. Quite frankly, this is exceptional for a two-door GT car like the Lexus LC. I started to wonder at this point how a Porsche 911's frunk would do. Thankfully, as it turns out, I did a variation of this test back in 2013 with the previous-generation 911. And to think I was impressed by that.

8 things you should know about the Lexus LC 500h powertrain

Lexus unveiled the LC 500h today in The Netherlands, and I got to take a look inside its new hybrid system. On one hand it seems like a box of magic – it combines two seemingly incompatible transmission types into one package. But that's also the ingenious simplicity of the thing. We don't have all of the details on how it all works yet, but here's a rundown of the high points.Efficient business in front, low-key party in the back. What makes it all work is the mullet of transmissions. For the new hybrid transmission, Lexus used the Toyota Hybrid Synergy Drive/Lexus Hybrid System – which consists of an e-CVT with a planetary gearset and two electric motors (one for charging the battery, the other for motivation and regen) – and grafted a conventional four-speed automatic onto the back. The two units actually coexist in one package, with the e-CVT making things efficient and the automatic expanding the capabilities. So at the low end, the system can deliver more torque, and the engine can also run at lower rpm on the highway. It's all thanks to those fixed gear ratios, and it's surprisingly simple.Except it's not that simple. This is where the virtual gear ratios come in. Like current Lexus hybrids, the system has ratios it can call up with the e-CVT. In this case, there are six virtual ratios to complement the four real physical ratios, for a total of 10 "gears" at the transmission's disposal. (Not coincidentally, the V8 LC 500 coupe has a 10-speed automatic.) One of the four fixed gears is always engaged when the car is moving, so the 10 ratios come about from combinations of what the e-CVT in front and the automatic in the back are doing. In other words, all 10 ratios are variations on the four fixed gear ratios, which means that all 10 gears could be considered virtual.It won't use all the gears all the time. In Eco mode, the car will start off on electric power and skip the first couple of "gears." When it's set to Sport or Sport +, the engine will be engaged from a stop and the transmission will select the lowest ratio. The sportier modes will also ignore the top couple of gear ratios.It can drive faster with the engine off. In a Lexus GS 450h with the Lexus Hybrid System, for example, at speeds above 62 mph or so the engine has to start up. This is because something needs to take up some slack from the battery-charging motor-generator or else it will start spinning too quickly.