Is this the real life, or is this just fantasy?
When Japanese luxury carmaker Lexus rolled out its beautiful new LS limousine earlier this year, we were amazed that it had arrived without a V8 under the hood. The Lexus LS has always had a V8, ever since its inception in the early 90s, and we expected to find eight cylinders supplemented by some degree of forced induction and aided by cylinder deactivation to keep with the times.
Instead, Lexus chose to ditch the V8 altogether, instead offering turbo-V6s in its place that the company says offers the sort of effortless performance that buyers in this segment deserve. At the time, the decision was shored up with the statement that the new LS has to offer “a new level of luxury in every aspect,” and so it goes.
However, it was discussed between those in the know a little bit later that Lexus could have intentionally offered the limousine exclusively with a V6 at the time as so to leave enough room at the top end for a V8-powered super-saloon. It appears that the speculation may have been right, after a photo of a tuned-up Lexus LS saloon appeared on a Japanese publication, which was then subsequently shared on Instagram.
The caption of the Instagram upload suggests a 4.0-litre V8 with two turbochargers, along with a possible debut at the 2017 Tokyo Motor Show. This isn’t a dressed-up LS F-Sport for sure, with design cues from other full-bodied F cars melded onto the luxo-barge, all distinctly different than the dress-up pack that we’ve seen previously. And while this may be easily dismissed as a rendering-guru’s wet dream, it’s worth noting that ahead of the RC-F’s debut, similar images were carried in a similar way.
That engine is something that’s been discussed at length by industry pundits, as it’s been rumoured to be a project that Lexus has been working on to eventually fit into the LC-F. If that’s the case, then it would make total sense that the same biturbo V8 could see use under the nose of the LS-F and put the big Lexus in contention with cars like the BMW M760Li xDrive and the Jaguar XJR575.
In summary: We don’t know if it’s real, but we certainly hope it is.
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