Lexus GS F is on the road.
The Lexus GS F is a car that’s been on the starting blocks for several years. Lexus’s F-brand performance division was ready to launch it back in 2010, using the third-generation GS as a basis – only for global financial conditions to be deemed too hostile.
So it’s with a strong sense of relief that the Japanese firm is now finally getting ready to put its first full-size super-saloon into showrooms and slide another feather into the band of its cap.
Less power in this case is still quite a lot, though. Like 477bhp. And 4.7 seconds is hardly slow. Besides, it well enough to know that vulgar numbers can mean very little – that M5, for example, may pack mongo horsepower, but it’s hardly what you’d call raw and exciting.
The power seems to come in surges, so just when you thought you were going fast you go faster still. As the redline approaches, it’s like a sprinter lunging for the tape – so the depth of pull might not be there, but wring its neck and it’ll give you everything.
There’s no way it does this, though. There’s a parallel universe in which Lexus V8s are synonymous with drift heroics, but try that sort of thing in the GS F and it’ll tut quietly and pat you on the head.
Having said that, despite having less power than its obvious super-saloon rivals, this is a more entertaining car than most of them. It has traditional values alongside a styling package that’s other-worldly on the outside and classy as hell in the cabin, and in creating it Lexus has managed to add a note of character that takes it beyond the realms of mere facts and figures.
It’s cheaper than the M5, too, at £69,995 – and that’s before you start adding options to the German legend, whereas Lexus gives you more or less everything as standard.
But then it should be cheaper, right? After all, it has less power. And the numbers never lie. Do they?
Specifications at a glance
Transmission 8-speed auto, rear-wheel drive
0-62mph 4.7 seconds
Top speed 168mph (limited)
Weight 1,790kg (Lexus minimum kerbweight)
MPG 25.2
CO2 260g/km
Price £69,995
To find out more please visit LEXUS UK
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