I was planning on introducing you to the all-new 2013 Lexus GS luxury sport sedan this week as I have just returned from an awesome day at the track with the new models, but Judie kind of stole my thunder last week. [Sorry! -Judie]
So instead perhaps I will regale you with word of the OTHER Lexus that showed up while us autowriters were putting GS through its paces.
Ya’all ever heard of the LFA?
Well, Lexus invited us to spend some seat time riding shotgun with factory driver Ron Newsome as we zipped around the road course on the infield at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. And if that were not enough, a few of us were treated to hot laps on the big track that pretty much set your hair on fire and shoved your throat down in your stomach.
Yes, that LFA. All 552hp of it, and although we did not quite tip the speedo at its peak of 202 mph we were treated to blistering paces just short of us having to don firesuits (we did have helmets on, though).
Taking on the Speedway in this limited-production $375,000 supercar was icing on a very good cake that day, and while I did not get to actually pilot the vehicle I would not have done the automaker any justice had I been behind the wheel. Letting the expert show me what this baby can do is an adrenaline rush I won’t soon forget.
Lexus is building only 500 of these cars at a pace of 20 per month. It features a 4.8-liter V-10 engine backed by six-speed automated sequential gearbox in a front-mid-engine, rear-mid-transaxle, rear-wheel drive layout.
The body is carbon fiber-reinforced polymer and was designed with an emphasis on downforce. There is even a speed-sensitive rear wing that deploys at speeds over 50 mph.
The vehicle comes complete with A/C, navigation and a Mark Levinson sound system. We appreciated that cold air under the warm Nevada sun, but no way were we going to drown out that awesome triple-exhaust tip note to listen to a song we can hear any old time.
Oh, and for those of you wondering just how well the GS did, Lexus was so proud of its new baby they even brought out a couple of its German competitors for us to test it against on the road course. Lexus GS killed it.
The 2013 GS sport sedan from Lexus is not a game changer, but it finally puts Lexus in the game with the Europeans. No word on pricing just yet, but it is nowhere near that hefty sum the LFA fetches, and my guess would be it even cuts under the 5-Series and E-Class a tad.