2018 Lexus LC 500 Reviews: Lexus LC Specs And Full Details

Today we're going to be taking a look at the 2018 Lexus LC 500 technical review. The common notion is that LC stands for luxury coupe but that's actually incorrect LC stands for Lexus challenge and this challenge is a result of a challenge from CEO Akio Toyoda for Lexus to design a stunning vehicle and clearly that challenge was accepted.

Technical Specifications

• DISPLACEMENT : 5.0 L

• HORSEPOWER : 471 HP

• TORQUE. : 398 Nm @ 4,800 RPM

• TOP SPEED. : 168 MPH

• Net Weight : 4280 LBS

Specifications mentioned by the official website

The LC 500 features an all-new rear wheel architecture that currently isn't found anywhere else in Lexus IS lineup. So you should expect a lot of technology from this car to trickle down to other models in the Lexus lineup. So today let's go over some of the exterior and interior details for the LC 500 and see how this ride has been engineered for excellence, let's start off the review by talking about some of the exterior details of the LC 500 design.

Looking at this car you will notice immediately how aggressive it looks due to the sharp lines throughout the car's body panel. Now this car also looks fairly sleek as well and that's due to the fact that curves have been implemented into the body panels. The rear haunches have a sharp line defining it and then it's curved as well to give you that sleek appearance. It's important to note that the body panels of the LC 500 such as the hood fenders and door panel are composed of aluminum for weight reduction, the inner panel for the door is composed of a carbon fiber reinforced composite. Now that composite in combination with the 6000 series aluminum used for the door results in a door that weighs 47 percent less when compared to a door composed of steel and speaking of steel the LC 500 body structure is composed of ultra high strength tensile steel and high strength tensile steel. The result is a body structure that is the stiffest Lexus ever developed to date and yes that even includes the LFA.

At the front of the LC 500 you have a tessellated grille and it has a compressed mesh design on the top but once you get towards the bottom it opens up into more of a diamond pattern. You also have triple beam LED headlamps, these are currently the thinnest LED projector headlamps in the industry. You have an intake that helps promote laminar flow across the wheel arches and that's going to help with stability at higher speeds. Taking a look at the rear of the LC 500, it features tail lamps unlike anything I've seen on any vehicle before, they are amazing. They feature 80 LEDs each and when illuminated they use the infinity mirror principle that features is endless dimensional motifs and it looks amazing to maintain the cars to low-slung appearance and provide a suspension system that fits under the hood.

The engineers at lectures had to dissolve a special suspension system for the LC 500 you're getting a double joint multi-link suspension system that features die cast aluminum shock towers that weigh nearly half of what they would had they are been composed of steel while providing double the rigidity. In addition the suspension system features aluminum upper and lower arms and that helps keep the unstrung mass of the vehicle low. If you have a vehicle with a high unsprung mass you increase the chances of wheel hop during heavy acceleration and heavy braking and if all that isn't enough the LC 500 does feature an advanced variable suspension system. So it's variable up to 650 different levels based on what driving mode you're in. It also features linear monotube solenoid shocks that help mitigate body roll during aggressive driving.

One of the neat features of the LC 500 that's easy to overlook is the active rear steering at higher speeds. The rear wheels will turn in the same direction as the front wheels for enhanced stability and agility at lower speeds the rear wheels will turn in the opposite direction of the front wheels to help you maneuver in tight areas such as parking spaces. Let's take a look at the wheel tire and brake setup at the LC 500.

Wheels

This particular vehicle has the 21 inch forged lightweight wheels that come in a spectacular polish, they really look great on this car. The Bridgestone Potenza X that are 245 up front and 275 in the rear. The brake rotors up front are 15.7 inches in diameter and grasped by six piston calipers and in the rear your brake rotors are 14.1 inches in diameter and grasped by four piston calipers.

Powering the LC 500 is a five liter naturally aspirated v8 engine which produces 471 horsepower at 71 hundred rpm and also produces 398 pound feet of torque at 4800 rpm. Now I want to point out that this engine sits just aft of the front axle for the ideal weight distribution. It's connected to a 10 speed automatic transmission that is capable of shift times up to 120 milliseconds that is half the time it takes the average human to blink an eye. It is also connected to an active sport exhaust system that features flats that open and close based on engine speed. You're getting a 0 to 60 time in just 4.4 seconds. So now that we've covered some of the exterior details let's close the hood and take a look at the car's interior.

I must say myself I am quite impressed with the interior of the LC 500. The quality is amazing, its soft touch materials and just gorgeous surfaces everywhere throughout and I love the way the cabin has it's sweeping theme from the doors across the dash towards the other side of the car. The car is truly gorgeous.

So with that being said let's go ahead and start off with the top of the dash and work our way through the center console. The top of the dash is covered in a really nice smooth black leather and it has contrast stitching going across. You have a ten point three inch display screen for your infotainment system and I really love how they put the analog clock to the right. It's a really nice subtle touch further down you have your air conditioning vent controls for your air conditioning system CD player and then your electronic gear selector. You have a touchpad system that allows you to interact with the infotainment system and what I love about it is that it has a sort of vibration or haptic feedback every time you have an input. You also have controls for your radio and media as well.

The steering wheel of the LC 500 is quite gorgeous it fits perfectly with my hands and there was actually quite a bit of effort that went into designing the steering wheel. They did Studies on palm pressure while this car was on a track and they took each cross section and mapped it to the palm pressures to make it the ideal shape and comfort at each point of the steering wheel. So it has multifunction capability and it has a fully configurable instrument cluster behind it as well and then have magnesium shift paddles that have a nice rewarding click to it when you pull on them. Focusing on the seats and brief the tail I can really tell that Lexus put some effort into making sure that they got the seats right for the LCQ, they are extremely comfortable and they're luxurious as well. They feature leather on the sides and Cantara on the center portion. There 8-way power adjustable seats they have three levels of heating and cooling and feature three position memory. This is a car that you could easily take on a long road trip and be extremely comfortable in they also feature ample side bolstering to keep you planted in the center of the seat while driving aggressively. Let's take a second to focus briefly on the door panel.

Door Panels

On the top of the panel you have to remove black leather and then you have a large Alcantara section which provides great contrast against the black leather up top. Now one unique feature I did notice about the LCS door panel except the handle is devilish, there's nothing behind it except its Alcantara and it looks great. Coming further down you have controls for your windows and sideview mirrors and then there's some storage on the bottom of the door panel as well.

That was a brief tour of the 2018 Lexus LC 500. This car looks amazing and I really love the interior high quality no expense was spared.