► Lexus Dance of F video on YouTube
► Do you associate F with sportiness?
► The ongoing quest to make Lexuses sportier
As corporate videos go, Lexus’s recent Dance of F film is pretty edgy. The brand is still better associated with luxo-barges than outright sports cars – but this beautiful drift video does plenty to adjust perceptions.
It’s a mesmerisingly sideways celebration of oversteer, as a collection of Lexus’s go-faster F models slide around its Fuji track in a closely orchestrated drift-fest. Check out the LF-A supercar, RC-F coupes and GT3 racers as they slip-slide around the track for seemingly no other purpose than burning rubber in a millimetrically choreographed display. You’ve got to admire the drivers’ pluck…
At the time of writing, it’s garnered 855,000 views on YouTube – and Lexus will be hoping watchers come away thinking F is to Lexus what M is to BMW, RS to Audi and AMG to Mercedes-Benz. But does this marketing spend work? Does the drip-drip-drip actually change opinion on the ground more than new F sports models that thrash the competition?
Recent encounters with the RC-F have left our road testers scratching their heads: some have bemoaned its heft and blunter responses than German hot-rod saloon rivals; others enjoyed its more relaxed demeanour and get the duality of purpose that seems to suit Lexus performance cars.
At least this video suggests the Japanese are attempting to inject more sporting passion into the brand, as promised to CAR in an interview last autumn with European vice president Alain Uyttenhoven.
Click here to read his promise that more sporting Lexuses were on the way.
