Flamboyant, Or What?
by Ross Finlay (28 Jul 01)

This one certainly is different. Lexus's first open car is actually a coupé/convertible with exterior and interior styling cues from sources as different as Italian speedboats and electronic organ keyboards. During the development process, it was tested in the Japanese "bullet train" wind tunnel which also played host to the prototype LS430 luxury saloon. It's beautifully built and, technically, it's loaded for bear, with fancy control systems in every nook and cranny, and a DVD navigation system as standard.

The engine is that formidable 280bhp 4.3-litre V8 engine introduced a few months ago in the LS430. It fires the SC430, even with the power-sapping standard automatic transmission, off the line like a howitzer shell.

There's some high-class real wood trim to go with the leather upholstery, and this is only the second car of any make to be given the nod to use a (superb) Mark Levinson sound system - the first was the LS430.

Yet the rear seats in the coupé are so hilariously cramped for legroom that you can't seriously think about putting any passengers bigger than immature hamsters there. When the roof is retracted, the useful luggage space is almost certainly smaller than in a no-boot Toyota MR2, even without a spare wheel. That's just as well, because UK-market cars don't have one.

The company says, quite straight-faced, that the use of run-flat tyres "alleviates the need for a spare, which frees up more space for luggage". My dictionary doesn't seem, in this context, to have anything matching Lexus's definition of "more".

Big Problem?

No. It hardly seems to matter. These £50,850 cars will not be anybody's sole transport, and you simply can't help admiring a design presented with such maximum confidence and pzazz.

The SC430 has been on sale in the States, where Lexus is a top-rated make, for a few months now. Here, customers lobbing rocks at dealership windows have forced UK deliveries to start earlier than intended and, with this year's allocation of 250 cars long since snapped up, anybody who orders one now is already looking at a wait into 2002.

Regard it as a two-seater, and the car makes perfect sense. The front cabin is elegantly presented, roomy and conveniently laid out. If you want performance, it's certainly there, filtered through a silky-smooth five-speed automatic transmission.

The transmission is one of those "intelligent" types which responds to the forcefulness or otherwise of the driver's style, and also to the type of road. I didn't pay much attention to that, because I think you get more fun, when you want it, just snicking the lever through manually. There are quite enough electronic control systems as it is.

Off the line, the SC430, which is a sturdily built machine, will rocket to 62mph in 6.4 seconds. I'd love to try one with a straightforward manual transmission, but such a thing doesn't exist. Maximum speed is limited to 155mph, otherwise the Lexus would proceed substantially faster.

Is this a sports car, though? Not really. On some undulating roads, and through a variety of bends with the same kind of surface imperfections, I found myself holding on quite firmly to the wood-and-leather steering wheel while keeping my foot hard down. Engineered for smoother terrain elsewhere, the SC430 isn't quite at home, at speed, on roads with an unpredictable three-dimensional aspect. Or, to put it another way, bumpy.

Once again, that hardly seems to matter. Let rip on the straights, this is a really strong performer. The scenery accelerates past very swiftly, and you'd have to be careful to avoid featuring too prominently in a Best of Gatso compilation.

Pondering The Tyre Situation

The idea about the run-flat tyres is that the reinforced side walls are strong enough, on their own, to support the car for something like 100 miles at speeds up to 55mph - or as far as it takes to get it to a garage. Can you absolutely take it for granted, though, that the puncture would then be repairable? I'd be rather leery about that.

It's possible, too, that the construction of the tyres, even when filled with air, doesn't help the ride quality or control at speed over the bumps. Discuss.

The big talking point, of course, is the action of the roof. It's complicated but quite quick, as the aluminium panels either cascade into the boot or raise themselves out of it again. Lexus isn't by any means the first manufacturer to use this system, but it has designed and built a retractable roof which is just about the best in the business.

Roof-down, buffeting around the front seats is minimal. Driving bare-headed isn't a problem. Roof-up, the SC430 feels just like a solid-roofed coupé, and it runs quietly. Those noise-suppressing sessions in the bullet train wind tunnel weren't just for fun.

All things considered, there are some things about this car which, if it weren't so well engineered, and so obviously built under the very tough Lexus quality control regime, might seem rather too Medallion Man. But it is, and they don't.

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