At the 2015 Detroit motor show in January Lexus will unveil a new high-performance F-badged saloon – and it’s tipped to be the new GS F.
It’ll be the second go-faster Lexus in the company’s current line-up, alongside the brawny 465bhp V8-powered RC F Coupe.
What is Lexus’s new F model, then?
It’s not a new-generation IS F, despite a handy performance car-shaped hole in the IS range to be filled. Nor is it, we understand, a variant of the LS luxobarge.
Indications are that we’re actually looking at the new Lexus GS F. That’s right, Lexus’s staid exec limo is pulling on its running shoes. Mechanical details are still to come, but it should be fast, and focused – Lexus describes the car as ‘track-ready.’
Those headlights!
They’re certainly quite a departure from those seen on the current GS, so as well as heralding a new hardcore range-topper, we can posit that the car on show at Detroit may also signal a facelift for the GS series.
The current-gen GS saloon was launched in 2012 and currently sports relatively demure oblong-shaped headlamps. The new ones look angrier and narrower, underlined by a prominent version of the Nike-style LED swoosh that’s becoming a hallmark of current Lexus design.
That’s a complicated looking front bumper…
Best not ding it while you’re parking. The two teaser images Lexus has released show a car with unique headlamp treatment, a carbonfibre chin spoiler and gaping air intakes to help cool some rather enormous front brakes. They’ll need to be quite powerful too – this won’t be a lightweight car.
Incidentally, the ‘F’ suffix attached to Lexus’s hotted-up models stands for Fuji, the race circuit at the foot of Mount Fuji where James Hunt clinched the F1 crown and, more relevantly, Toyota does a fair bit of chassis development work.
This may be the second current-gen F model but it probably won’t be the last, as Lexus describes its high-performance model portfolio as a ‘growing stable.’
Click here to read Chris Chilton’s review of the Lexus RC F Coupe