rparkzy

i feel you here. lexus should have made it more aggressive stock.

i got curious and looked up some pictures of a 435i and the wheel gap is a lot less noticeable.

tea

yea... German equivalents have much much less wheel gap than Lexus and other Japanese manufacturers

dchar

I assume Lexus makes the gaps a little bigger to prevent the bottom side of the bumper from getting scratched when pulling in and out of driveways. Most German cars I've seen have scratched bumpers. Wish Lexus would just let the nose rise with a push of a button and lower to a better looking height the rest of the time.

Fizzboy7

The gap is terrible and ruins the sporty look in my opinion. BMW has long offered lower stock models. I'd rather bottom out a few times than look like a 4x4.
Bare in mind, sometimes these cars ride higher to meet pedestrian and crash test standards. It's not always for clearance. Regardless, it still looks bad. Also got to wonder the toll it takes on fuel mileage. Lower cars generally get better mileage.

garyb7

The incredible thing is Lexus already knows how much better a sport car looks without that stupid gap because they lower the car for all auto shows and for the promotional cars - like the one below.

garyb7

Here is the pic of their promotional and auto show car - almost no gap at all.

JT4

You're right almost no gap.. Looks like it was lowered, and if you look close at the first pic you posted you can see a little negative camber on the rear tire..

I wonder if the RC-F well have less gap..

garyb7

No the big gap isn't there on the RC-F, it's about the same as the BMW pic posted earlier. I saw the RC-F at my local dealer and took a pic, below. Beautiful color.

garyb7

Nice catch with the negative camber!

Here is a photo posted on another thread that shows the front gap being (alot) larger than the rear gap. It makes for an odd looking stance. I wonder what Lexus was thinking?????

garyb7

Note that RS*R in Japan says they are working on lowering springs for the RC. In the meantime they show a before and after photo for the RC300h - see link.

JT4

Funny you should mention this pic. When I first saw it, to me it looked as though the front left wheel was on something causing the right front wheel gap and the minimal right rear wheel gap..

Don't get me wrong the car is gorgeous, but something with that pic just didn't seem right..

garyb7

That's exactly the impression you get when you see the car live - it looks awkward because the front gap is larger than the rear, and not by a fraction of an inch either - it's like they installed the wrong spring up front, lol.

JT4

Can't wait to see it in person....

4TehNguyen

iTrader: (1)

RCF gap is good when I was looking at one. I had a hard time getting my arm inside to feel how much space there was between the knuckle and tire and Im a skinny guy. I was trying to get a feel of how much wider tires can go on the stock wheels

Fizzboy7

A couple of things:
1) All manufacturers preview pre-production models with lowered suspensions that do not make it to production. It is a 100% known fact in the industry that lowered cars look better and attract hoards of people. But the realities of laws and safety preclude having said lowered suspension once in production.
2) Same goes for all cars in advertisements. They are all loaded up in the trunk with weight to lower the height. Again, this is because public perception is always more favorable when a car is lowered and the windows are blacked out. I've said this quote since the 80's, "lower any car and you'll make it look good."
3) 99% of buyers do not go aftermarket with lowering springs. So the 4x4 look remains on the road.