Hi,

I am looking to add an RCF to my garage

May I know if anyone has owned an RCF and LC500 before?

If yes, how different are they in the real-world?

I am thinking of adding a car that can do weekend drives and enjoy the beautiful V8

Any feedback is helpful!

 

@jimmychengca went from LC to IS500 to RCF so he had a lot of impressions in threads from last year. Might need to dig it up.

The cars are meant for different types of target buyers. RCF is more of a street car that can be taken to the track and do hotlaps all day without going into limp mode, overheating or fading etc. The car is built to handle track abuse and it will haopily do it all day.

LC is a flagship luxury grand tourer so it is more focused on luxury, comfort, style as well as long distance driving. It is tuned to be on the softer side and is based on the LS chassis.

With that being said, RCF is a much smaller car. About 3 inches shorter. much shorter wheelbase and about 3 inches narrower. About 400 lbs lighter. So, the physics around the differences are obvious. Also, the suspension/chassis are considerably stiffer so that will not be as comfortable to drive on imperfect roads unless you get the later models, which have adaptive variable suspension so you can soften it up in non-SPORT+ mode. You also have various flavors of RCF. The RCF standard comes with LSD and then the RCF performance package comes with torque vectoring differential and carbon fiber roof/spoiler to lower CoG, RCF track edition/Fuji speedway edition and then the RCF Final Edition. It is a big topic to discuss the differences in these variants.

All in all, if you are looking for primarily luxury, comfort while enjoying the engine sound then LC does a great job. If you want to really do a lot of weekend spirited driving and once in a while, track days then RCF would be the car to get. The exhaust sound stock, is better on LC, but it is easily fixable with an aftermarket exhaust and it sounds incredible.

The LC comes with newer 10 speed transmission while the RCF has the 8 speed transmission (both of them are based on the same AISIN architecture), but RCF comes with cooling systems for hard track days. If you are going all out, the RCF 8 speed is lightning fast especially in SPORT+/MANUAL mode, but if you drive casually then the artificial intelligence seems to dumb down the transmission much more so than in the LC.

 

Wow! Thank you for taking time to share your thoughts

Have you or anyone driven the RCF from 2016 vs say the RCF 2023, back to back to tease out the differences?

I like the fact that the RCF has a shorter wheelbase, so it can nimbler on tighter roads

Will the RCF match the shift speeds of the LC500 in manual? I've seen the LC500 shift, and that is impressive

 

I’ve had both. Driven them all road and track. Modified them all. LC is superior unless you want to track a car out the box. RC F is a better fit. For me the track edition is the way to go. Mind you track times for LC and RC F are similar.

RC F has a more usable interior and much larger trunk. LC transmission is way better. LC also makes more lovely V-8 noise.

Both have a ton of aftermarket options. I’ve bought two LCs.

@05RollaXRS has some good points

 

Track times in isolation, could be misleading as conditions etc. create a lot of variables as we know people on the internet harp about it. For example, a basic C7 Stingray Corvette has a faster lap time than an LFA around VIR which logically makes no sense as I have been in some runs with a local guy with a bolt-on C7. It barely is able to pull away from my RCF by a bit. I am sure an LFA is leagues better. As the saying goes, cannot have your cake and eat it too. Every car has some compromise. It is just physics. RCF with all things being equal, same driver and in the same conditions, has proven to be 2 - 3 secs quicker around Mendig AFB and Saschensring. RCF also has a slalom speed of 0.98g C&D testing (aside from LFA, happens to be the quickest with a Lexus badge).

Here is one example of Top Gear Russia in 2018 did this head to head comparison. RCF won all of the races by a significant margin



I have not driven another variant of the RCF, unfortunately. The differences from people who have owned various years, say the differences are minimal. It is basically the same car with small tweaks. Go for the newer version especially 2020+ carbon/TVD or the track edition/FSW would be the ones to look for depending on your budget or what you have available etc. You just get more newer updates with the 2020+

Yes, that is correct. It has a shorter wheelbase than my IS350 F-Sport by about 3 inches. So, it really wants to make the car turn and kick the rear tail out very easily. The inherent instability of a short wheelbase, wants to make it more willing to turn. Long wheelbase is better for directional stability and predictability, but it inherently wants to drive straight.

Yes it does. Though, in the RCF you have to be in SPORT+ and MANUAL mode above 4000 rpm to have the rev matching while in the LC, you get more generous rev matching even at slower speeds. Here is an RCF being flogged on canyon roads. You can hear the rev matching in aggressive driving.


Even on my cr*ppy OEM PSS tires (RCF is severely under-tired from factory for a high performance car), I got 1.3g in turns. I replaced them with much higher load rated PS4S tires with much stiffer sidewalls and the direction changes are night/day.

 

Wow, tyres make such a big difference.

Did you go wider in size or just change in tyre type (PSS to PS4S)?

 

I'm asking a fairly similar ? on this, you may have already viewed my thread: https://www.clublexus.com/forums/rc-...0-and-rcf.html

I've driven both, and own a '22 LC500 Inspiration Edition that's currently in the shop due to a collision, another boneheaded driver pulled an illegal turn and hit me, causing a fair amount of damage.

Previous to having the above incident happen, I've been considering a RCF TE as a track car, and 2nd'ary car to have fun with, in addition to the LC500. I've driven both quite a bit, and notably both @ the LPDS's in the past.

Unfortunately, with Lexus discontinuing the V8's in their vehicles it appears the LPDS is no more, which is a real shame. I used the event to determine if I wanted to purchase the LC500, and attending the school solidified that I did want to make the purchase of the LC500. I also drove / tracked the RCF @ LPDS Master Class, which is the next level and exclusively uses the RCF TE, which was a real joy to drive since the base level LPDS focuses mainly on the road course (AKA Big track) and the LC500. The RCF is only used in the base class for the skid pad, which was my least favorite part of the event.

IMO, the LC500 is a GT type car, very comfortable, nice and smooth, and drives like one would expect for a GT'ish type car. I have the most track time in the LC500.

The RCF feel much more nimble than the LC500, and is a completely different feel on the track from my experience. You really can't go wrong with either vehicle, but it depends on what your overall goal is in purchasing one over the other? More comfort, somewhat refined feel, and GT type ride? That's the LC500, from my experience.

More nimble, somewhat aggressive track car, with plenty of Lexus comforts, but more track-centric? I'd go with the RCF.

Note that all of the above comments, and experiences are my own opinion. With the time in the seat of the RCF much less than the LC500, since I do own the latter. Your mileage may vary, and to each their own, and all that.

 

I stuck with the stock size. Did not really feel the need to go wider and adding more rotational mass as the grip is enough even with 255/275. The stock wheels are 9 inches and 10 inches so the 255 mm and 275 mm are both decent sizes at 19 inches for the stock 9 inches and 10 inches. Though, I must note that my AMG-Spec PS4S XL (96Y front and 100Y rear) were about 1/2 inches wider than my same size OEM PSS (92Y and 96Y rear). The sidewalls are much stiffer so give a much better/sharper steering response. Still, a bit on the softer side compared to RE71 etc., but much stiffer than the OEM PSS tires. Lexus under-tired it from factory to maintain a civilized ride with soft (albeit very grippy) tires and to make it appeal to a much wider audience rather than just enthusiasts.