2015 Lexus RC F

Typically, when full-line car companies set out to develop a coupe, they start with a sedan from the current lineup, trim two doors, and rewrap the package in a sleeker body. A shorter wheelbase is optional. Lexus rolled up that memo and burned it before going to work on the RC. Instead, to form its new coupe’s structure, Lexus combined the front clip of the GS sedan, the center section of the old IS C convertible, and the rear end of the IS sedan, using adhesives and welding and a fancy technique called laser screw welding, which allows for more frequent tacks and thus greater rigidity.

The three-piece approach makes more sense once it’s explained. The GS front gives engineers the extra track width they wanted for handling. They deemed the IS rear sufficient to keep the car’s dimensions tidy, and the IS C center section necessary for its inherent stiffness and shorter wheelbase. Compared with the current IS sedan, the RC coupe is roughly 1.5 inches longer, wider, and lower, but with a 2.7-inch shorter wheelbase.

The RC F we have here is the hot-rod version of the RC, and the car Lexus is using to effectively replace its IS F sedan, which does not have an analogue in this new IS generation. (Lexus’s hi-po four-door will be the GS F, bigger and likely more expensive than the old M3-baiting IS F.) But the RC F is not trying to be a direct BMW M-whatever knockoff; it has its own thing going. The snug cockpit swaddles the driver with information and controls in what seems like an appropriate techno-modern, Tokyo-by-night design scheme. A high center console features an optional touchpad that is part of the $2840 navigation and up­graded stereo package, and the instruments showcase a morphing LCD center tach, similar to the LFA’s. Nearly everything in the car can be adjusted with the haptic infotainment control pad, but there are also redundant buttons with knobs for volume and tuning, just as in the current IS.

The LCD tach changes its appearance between the four drive modes (eco, normal, sport, and sport plus) and is flanked by another screen on the left, which displays tire pressures, radio stations, g-forces, and just about everything else. A smaller analog speedometer lies to the right.

There are few occasions in life when we’d say that 467 horsepower isn’t enough. This is one of them. While the IS F’s old 5.0-liter V-8 got thoroughly overhauled for this new RC F, the car weighs 4048 pounds, 200-plus more than the old sedan.

Mass is the RC F’s millstone. It has 400 pounds on a BMW M4 and weighs as much as the four-wheel-drive Audi RS5. In a three-way drag race, the Bimmer walks away, with the F and RS5 keeping pace through the quarter-mile. By 130 mph, the RC F has eked out a nearly two-second lead on the RS5. Keep your foot in it and a governor abruptly halts acceleration at 171 mph.

With all the data crunched, the RC F proves no quicker than the old IS F. Nor is it slower, though. We recorded a 4.3-second zero-to-60 and a quarter-mile time of 12.8 seconds, identical to a 2008 IS F. Identical, too, is the naturally aspirated V-8 wail. While muted in the cabin, pedestrians will flinch when the intake’s noise flap opens and the camshaft timing changes the engine’s rumble into a sweaty roar.

Lexus gets credit for adding 51 horsepower to the V-8 with something more than a software update and without resorting to forced induction (cough, cough, BMW). Titanium valves, all 32 of them, along with a lighter crankshaft and con-rods, allowed engineers to lift the redline by 500 rpm to 7300. Only the 8300-rpm Audi RS5 can rival the F for aural gratification; the M4’s turbocharged and overly enhanced soundtrack is no match. If only the RC F were quicker for it.

More revs equals more power, but it also requires more air and fuel. Thus, the 2UR-GSE, as the V-8 is coded, gets a larger throttle body and higher-flow fuel injectors. Max power comes at 7100 rpm, while the torque peak of 389 pound-feet, up 18 from the IS F, is available at 4800 rpm. That’s 400 rpm earlier than the old engine. Compression also increases to 12.3:1, from 11.8:1.

Enabling the extra power are wider-range cam phasers, giving the V-8 Atkinson-cycle capability. This improves the RC F’s efficiency during cruising and under low loads and gives the RC F a 2-mpg boost in EPA highway testing over the old IS F, to 25 mpg. City fuel economy is unchanged at 16. Thirsty, the RC F chugged a gallon of premium every 15 miles during its stay here.

All the work that went into the structure is apparent from the first few turns of the wheel. An astonishingly stiff unibody means the cowl never quivers because of the stiff central section’s origin as a convertible. The rigid architecture succinctly telegraphs all communication from the chassis, which is both good and bad. Push the front axle past its limit and tire chatter shimmies up the steering column, as it’s supposed to. But a mercilessly pitted road sends some shudders to the spines of passengers as well. The car feels as supple as a Lexus ES on a smooth road, something the rigid, tense M4 can’t claim.

The F’s seats come stacked with large bolsters in the front buckets, appropriate for a car capable of 0.95 g on the skidpad. Considering the Michelin Pilot Super Sports wrapping 19-inch forged BBS wheels, that’s lower than we expected, but the car comes set up with a healthy amount of understeer. Lexus admits that it didn’t want to build an intimidating car. Its goal was a PG-rated performance coupe, fun for all skill levels, and on that it has delivered.

Despite the four drive modes, the steering offers only normal and sport options. The latter, active in sport and sport plus, adds heft but no feedback. Like a stubborn toddler, the wheel communicates clearly only when its diaper is full, when the tires have gone over the edge.

Transmission logic will adapt to a particular driving style, but the eight-speed auto, another IS F carryover, responds to manual inputs without protest. Robust 15.0-inch front rotors and 13.6-inch rear rotors do an impeccable job of erasing speed without fade, though we’d prefer a pedal that wasn’t muddy-feeling at the top. A 154-foot 70-to-zero stopping distance is just longer than the M4’s. Considering the RC F carries extra poundage, that’s a commendable performance.

Unlike its curb weight, the RC F’s base price has gone down, and at $63,325 it is $1200 less than the 2014 IS F. Our test car came with the Performance package, which is a big investment at $5500. With it you get an M4-style carbon-fiber roof, carbon rear wing, and a torque-vectoring differential. The diff, a first for Toyota, has three settings independent of the drive modes: normal, slalom, and track. Slalom offers the most-aggressive torque swings. The diff effectively mitigates understeer but works only when you are on the throttle. Unadvertised is the package’s 50-pound weight penalty. The carbon-fiber pieces save about 15 pounds, but the unit, with its electric motors and clutch packs, is 66 pounds heavier than the standard Torsen limited-slip diff.

In the ultrabright Molten Pearl paint, the RC F looks more brash and busy than flowing and elegant. It leans hard on the Japanese comic-book robot-superhero aesthetic. And indeed, its power-to-weight ratio is the only thing keeping the F from being an actual superhero. It may not have the outright thrust or balance of an M4, or even the style of an RS5, but the new F has a personality all its own, a Japanese Camaro with lots of buttons and displays and a boisterous voice. The IS F made its debut in 2007 as a fast but otherwise unexceptional Lexus, though quiet improvements meant that by 2011 the car was near the top of its class. Four years later, the RC F enters the market firmly planted there.