2017 Lexus Rc - F - The jalopnik review part 2

2017 Lexus RC-F: The Jalopnik Review part 2 BMW, Audi, Mercedes-Benz, and even Infiniti have all long offered a luxury sports coupe in their lineup. Except for the short-lived IS convertible, LFA supercar, and the SC, which was cool until it wasn’t, Lexus hasn’t had a consistent, two-door offering for quite some time now. The RC should then be a crucial car to help Lexus solidify its brand image towards consumers. Yet it does so with a face only Godzilla’s mother would love. Whatever you think of it, admit it: this thing looks like nothing else on the road at the moment. But the fundamental reason why this car matters a lot, for me at least, is the fact that it’s the only fast luxury super-coupe out now that comes with a naturally aspirated V8. That’s becoming increasingly rare in the segment. Even Mercedes-AMG has dropped its 6.2-liter brute in favor of a twin-turbo V8. The Lexus RC-F is a gasaholic. It drinks gallons of premium fuel without apologizing. You’ll tell me that’s normal for a high-performance V8, but the RC-F takes it to another level. Even when feathering the throttle, in Eco mode, with the wind in my back, catching the draft of semi trucks, the damn thing still couldn’t get more than 21 mpg. To put things into perspective, that 707 HP Hellcat I drove a few weeks back pulls 25 mpg on the highway. Then there’s the extreme heft of the thing. The car weighs 4,048 pounds for Christ’s sake. That’s 400 pounds heavier than a BMW M4. Four hundred! A Honda Ridgeline pickup weighs 4,423 pounds, which is the equivalent of me and two bros riding in the RC-F. It’s obese. This means that on the track, the car does unusual and clumsy things. It’s all easy to control though, but if you happen to lift off too early when exiting a corner, or simply attempt to over-correct it when it runs out of grip, for example, that fat *** will let you know it’s back there, violently whipping you into place. Was it my neck I just heard break in half?. Finally, the infotainment system is garbage. Ŀexus replaced the little mouse-thingy for a touch-pad with cross-hairs on it. It’s worse! You can’t access anything quickly on that screen. The system lags and never shows you the information you actually want. The interface is a mess, distracting, confusing, and downright useless. But it’s hardly all bad. The seats. OH MY GOD THE SEATS! Insanely comfortable. Stunningly attractive. Smooth. Soft. Warm. Cool. Aggressively bolstered and relaxing as hell. This is what Lexus does best; a car in which you could basically live in. During casual highway cruising, the big V8 shuts up and sleeps below 2,000 rpm. The eight-speed automatic does its thing in the background, shifting forever, but you never sense it. The cabin is as quiet as a vault, the suspension, when set to Normal mode, is soft and compliant. The Mark Levinson sound system is absolutely epic. It’s all beautifully well crafted in there, like a Lexus ought to be.