I had made my mind up. After countless hours on YouTube, online owner forums, and price gauging on Carsales, I was ready to purchase a…Porsche 981 Cayman.
Here’s the thing; my life revolves around cars, they excite me and push me to work hard and better myself. I had a shortlist of 5 cars, but ended up buying the 6th! The Lexus RCF.
When I purchase a car, it needs to have a few things; classic looks, a chassis and engine that can deliver performance that makes even the worst days of the year “not so bad”, and X factor. Something I don’t see every day, if everyone else has one I don’t want it. Which brings me to my recent purchase from the “grandpa brand”.
I received a text from my fiancé saying that the dealership across the road has just had an Lexus RCF come into stock and that I should go check it out.
I was hesitant as I read in journalism that this car is heavy, less of an outright performance machine than a BMW M4, and well, Jeremy Clarkson hated it!
However 2 hours before I was due to start work I decided why the hell not and drove down to just have a look, see how I felt. I mean, I test drove an F80 M3 comp the previous week and disliked it despite having high expectations, the dead steering, overly harsh ride, and zero X factor killed the experience, in my humble opinion.
So why not give the high end Toyota coupé a chance? The first thing that struck me was the level of build quality the interior has, the stitching is without imperfection, no creaky plastics, it was solid.
The keys were then thrown to me so I sat in it’s large and comfortable interior and pressed the start button. I then almost fell into the most comfortable and supported sleep I have had since I was last at the Four Seasons in Sydney a few weeks ago.
The V8 gave a humble growl as it came to life, as though to say there is something formidable beneath all of the luxury and size.
As I set off I was smiling already but couldn’t quite figure out why; the digital dash changed depending on what driving setting it is on, sporty fonts and sizes, and appeasing colours encouraging me to explore the RCF’s performance premise.
So I did. I selected Sport + put the torque vectoring differential into Track mode and let the fancy Camry coupe show me what it could do within public road restrictions.
The rest was history really, that engine is a masterpiece! It creates a sound so moreish, it manages to cause my thick European arm hairs stand to attention! This thing has X factor!
The responsive rear wheel steering keeps it feeling far lighter a car than it is. The 5.0L NA V8 power band is linear and response is instant, even the most responsive turbo charged cars I have driven could not match this, it’s true power on demand; 351kws of it.
Coming from a manual APR stage 2+ Audi TTRS, I had a car that was exactly how I wanted it; short wheel base, light weight, tons of power, all wheel drive. It shouldn’t make sense that I am having so much fun in a car that is the opposite, on paper at least.
Granted, the 8 speed gearbox does let this car down a bit, compared to the fast responding dual clutch gearboxes that it’s German rivals have, it can be hesitant.
However it wasn’t enough to deter me from the fact that I have managed to buy two cars for the price of an RCF.
The first is an almost silent, extremely comfortable long distance/every day cruiser in normal mode, and the second; a savage, no nonsense fire breathing legend down the straights and corners, a four wheeled Dr Jekyll!
After a few exhaust alterations, it now sounds how it really should. It’s not exactly great on fuel, only in eco mode which seems a bit ironic, but that was to be expected, I am not persuaded enough by electric propulsion just yet.
It also is not every day that one can buy a car of this calibre and speak about reliability as one of its strongest points. With factory forged connecting rods, titanium pieces and a whole host of other Lexus/Toyota features, this Yamaha designed engine can allegedly keep sounding good for 6-700k kms.
So there it is; it wasn’t a Maserati Gran Turismo, a BMW M3/4 Competition, M5/6, or even the perfectly balanced and tuned Porsche 981 Cayman that won me over. It was instead the Japanese underdog. Searching for the perfect car lead me to a car that was instead, perfect for me.
Lexus IS is so underrated