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Written by Dan Carney
Toyota President and CEO Akio Toyoda used the Detroit show to touthis plan for a more emotional Lexus brand in place of the "well made, butboring" brand consumers see it as today. Citing research with such comments, Toyoda says it is hisgoal that "boring" and "Lexus" never again appear in the same sentence, and heunveiled the LC 500 coupe as his company"s latest salvo in that battle. "This LC 500 iswhat a more emotional Lexus looks like to me," Toyoda crowed as he revealed thecar. What the LC 500 also looks like is the Lexus LF-LC Conceptfrom the Detroit show in 2012. That concept was meant as something of a hint atthe brand"s design direction, not as a planned production model. Butoverwhelmingly favorable comments on the car encouraged Lexus to approve it forproduction. The problem was, how to do that. The LF-LC"s dramatic linesthat so enamored its fans terrified production engineers who couldn"t comprehendhow they could build such a thing. Asked to identify the biggest challenge in bringingthe LC500 to production so closely resembling the LF-LC, Chief Engineer KojiSato quipped, "Most of this vehicle is a challenge!" He did identify the rear bodywork as a notable example. "Thefender line and rear quarter panel is a very deep press," he said. "It was agreat effort, but finally, we did it," Sato stated. As the LC 500 will be the flagship Lexus coupe, taking itsplace in the product line above the well-regarded RC coupe, it is a vehicle ofsuperlatives. It is the very first Lexus built on Toyota"s new GlobalArchitecture for Luxury (GA-L), a front-engine, rear-drive platform that servesas the blueprint for future such Lexus models. The team focused on centralizing mass in the GA-L platformand putting mass as low as possible to improve the center of gravity and reducethe polar moment of inertia. Engineers referred to the effort as the "inertiaspec." Even the front seats are lower and closer together to putoccupant mass near the vehicle"s center, and the engine mounts behind the frontaxle. Naturally, the car"s battery mounts in the trunk. There is an available carbon-fiber roof panel, and carbonfiber is also used for the doors" inner structure and for the trunk"s floorpanel. Door skins are aluminum, and the rest of the car contains the highestpercentage of high-strength steel of any Lexus to date. The LC 500 will be available only with run-flat tires, whicheliminated the mass of a spare and helped shrink rear overhang because lessspace was needed to house a tire. Lexus showed the prototype LC500 wearing Michelin Pilot Sport tires withconcept tread. Wheels will be standard 20-in machined aluminum or optional21-in forged aluminum. The overall result is a front/rear weight balance of 52/48,and the use of advanced materials accounts for a reduction of mass of 100 kg (220 lb),Sato reported. The GA-L platform features aggressive use of lightweight andhigh-strength materials to bolster stiffness in a bid to ensure crisp drivingresponse. The chassis is 35% stiffer in bending and 60% stiffertorsionally than that in the RC, making it the most rigid chassis Lexus has yetproduced. Some of the critical parts include cast aluminum front shocktowers, a ring structure at the rear fenders to reinforce them, and a web ofsteel braces in the engine bay that keep it from twisting. The front suspension uses two ball joints on the upper andlower control arms to optimize geometry and improve steering response and feel.All but one of the control arms are aluminum, reducing unsprung mass. Naturally, significant development work was necessary tosort the myriad variables inherent in such a complex suspension. "We spent morethan triple the usual amount of R&D time to pursue linear steering and tofind the sweet spot for road contact feel," Sato said. "We also focused ourefforts on suspension rigidity and enhancing geometry. We are now at aworld-class level for suspension rigidity and performance when lateral gs areapplied." With all this new hardware, Lexus was conservative inselecting a powerplant. The LC 500 uses the 467-hp (348-kW), 389-lb ft (527 N m) 32-valve 5.0-LV8 seen previously in the RC-F and GS-F. However, it is matched to an all-new Aisin ten-speedplanetary automatic transmission that uses aluminum gears to reduce mass. Notonly does this new ten-speed weigh less than the eight-speed Lexus currently uses,but it also has a faster shift time of less than 0.2 s, according to Sato.Heat treatment of the gears provides the needed hardness for aluminum to servein that role, he said. Lexus has announced an official 0-60 mph acceleration targetfor the LC 500 of 4.5 s, but the real goal is 4.0 s flat, Satoconfided. Six-piston front and four-piston rear brake calipers will stop thecar following acceleration tests. In the event LC 500 occupants want to ignore the mechanicalmusic resulting from all this hard work by the engineering team, Lexus isprepared to indulge them, offering a standard Pioneer audio system or anoptional Mark Levinson system. The car is still fully a year from production, arriving nextyear as a 2018 model, so many more details remain to be finalized. It is easyto guess that Toyoda rushed the LC 500"s announcement a little earlier thanusual because he was so proud of his company"s achievement in developing aproduction model so closely resembling the much-liked concept.
Date written: 19-Jan-2016 07:21 EST
More of this article on the SAE International Website
ID: 1806
Toyota President and CEO Akio Toyoda used the Detroit show to touthis plan for a more emotional Lexus brand in place of the "well made, butboring" brand consumers see it as today. Citing research with such comments, Toyoda says it is hisgoal that "boring" and "Lexus" never again appear in the same sentence, and heunveiled the LC 500 coupe as his company"s latest salvo in that battle. "This LC 500 iswhat a more emotional Lexus looks like to me," Toyoda crowed as he revealed thecar. What the LC 500 also looks like is the Lexus LF-LC Conceptfrom the Detroit show in 2012. That concept was meant as something of a hint atthe brand"s design direction, not as a planned production model. Butoverwhelmingly favorable comments on the car encouraged Lexus to approve it forproduction. The problem was, how to do that. The LF-LC"s dramatic linesthat so enamored its fans terrified production engineers who couldn"t comprehendhow they could build such a thing. Asked to identify the biggest challenge in bringingthe LC500 to production so closely resembling the LF-LC, Chief Engineer KojiSato quipped, "Most of this vehicle is a challenge!" He did identify the rear bodywork as a notable example. "Thefender line and rear quarter panel is a very deep press," he said. "It was agreat effort, but finally, we did it," Sato stated. As the LC 500 will be the flagship Lexus coupe, taking itsplace in the product line above the well-regarded RC coupe, it is a vehicle ofsuperlatives. It is the very first Lexus built on Toyota"s new GlobalArchitecture for Luxury (GA-L), a front-engine, rear-drive platform that servesas the blueprint for future such Lexus models. The team focused on centralizing mass in the GA-L platformand putting mass as low as possible to improve the center of gravity and reducethe polar moment of inertia. Engineers referred to the effort as the "inertiaspec." Even the front seats are lower and closer together to putoccupant mass near the vehicle"s center, and the engine mounts behind the frontaxle. Naturally, the car"s battery mounts in the trunk. There is an available carbon-fiber roof panel, and carbonfiber is also used for the doors" inner structure and for the trunk"s floorpanel. Door skins are aluminum, and the rest of the car contains the highestpercentage of high-strength steel of any Lexus to date. The LC 500 will be available only with run-flat tires, whicheliminated the mass of a spare and helped shrink rear overhang because lessspace was needed to house a tire. Lexus showed the prototype LC500 wearing Michelin Pilot Sport tires withconcept tread. Wheels will be standard 20-in machined aluminum or optional21-in forged aluminum. The overall result is a front/rear weight balance of 52/48,and the use of advanced materials accounts for a reduction of mass of 100 kg (220 lb),Sato reported. The GA-L platform features aggressive use of lightweight andhigh-strength materials to bolster stiffness in a bid to ensure crisp drivingresponse. The chassis is 35% stiffer in bending and 60% stiffertorsionally than that in the RC, making it the most rigid chassis Lexus has yetproduced. Some of the critical parts include cast aluminum front shocktowers, a ring structure at the rear fenders to reinforce them, and a web ofsteel braces in the engine bay that keep it from twisting. The front suspension uses two ball joints on the upper andlower control arms to optimize geometry and improve steering response and feel.All but one of the control arms are aluminum, reducing unsprung mass. Naturally, significant development work was necessary tosort the myriad variables inherent in such a complex suspension. "We spent morethan triple the usual amount of R&D time to pursue linear steering and tofind the sweet spot for road contact feel," Sato said. "We also focused ourefforts on suspension rigidity and enhancing geometry. We are now at aworld-class level for suspension rigidity and performance when lateral gs areapplied." With all this new hardware, Lexus was conservative inselecting a powerplant. The LC 500 uses the 467-hp (348-kW), 389-lb ft (527 N m) 32-valve 5.0-LV8 seen previously in the RC-F and GS-F. However, it is matched to an all-new Aisin ten-speedplanetary automatic transmission that uses aluminum gears to reduce mass. Notonly does this new ten-speed weigh less than the eight-speed Lexus currently uses,but it also has a faster shift time of less than 0.2 s, according to Sato.Heat treatment of the gears provides the needed hardness for aluminum to servein that role, he said. Lexus has announced an official 0-60 mph acceleration targetfor the LC 500 of 4.5 s, but the real goal is 4.0 s flat, Satoconfided. Six-piston front and four-piston rear brake calipers will stop thecar following acceleration tests. In the event LC 500 occupants want to ignore the mechanicalmusic resulting from all this hard work by the engineering team, Lexus isprepared to indulge them, offering a standard Pioneer audio system or anoptional Mark Levinson system. The car is still fully a year from production, arriving nextyear as a 2018 model, so many more details remain to be finalized. It is easyto guess that Toyoda rushed the LC 500"s announcement a little earlier thanusual because he was so proud of his company"s achievement in developing aproduction model so closely resembling the much-liked concept.
Date written: 19-Jan-2016 07:21 EST
More of this article on the SAE International Website
ID: 1806
