Daily Slideshow: Coolest Features of the Lexus LC500

1. Styling

Before we get started, let it be known that there will be a quiz, with the answers to be revealed on the last slide: which two features can be found on early 1950s Ferrari 166 coupes as well as the LC 500?

Easily the most striking aspect of the LC 500 is its shape. Like a next-gen LFA mixed with a concept car mixed with a video game fantasy car, it's hard to believe the body shape made it into production. It is changing perceptions of what kind of a car company Lexus is. The mid/front position of the engine not only allows, but also dictates the timeless long hood/short trunk configuration, and with the wheels pushed out to the extreme corners of the car, both ride and handling reap the benefits. 

>>Join the conversation about the coolest features of the LC500 right here in ClubLexus forum!

2. Door Handles

After you've taken in the LC 500's arresting styling from afar and approach the car, you'll notice the door handles are flush with the door. The unifying themes of the LC's user interface are tactile pleasure, ergonomic excellence, ease of use, and clean design. The door handles trade a little ease of use for better aero and design unity—push on them and they pop out, then pull to open. To lock just tap the handle and it folds itself away and locks the door. 

>>Join the conversation about the coolest features of the LC500 right here in ClubLexus forum!

3. Door Lock Indicators

Blending the old with the new, it's another stylistic theme of the LC 500's design brief and a standby of classic luxury design as well. Door lock indicators, in the traditional old-fashioned lock plunger positions, are an implementation of this philosophy. They light up when locked. 

>>Join the conversation about the coolest features of the LC500 right here in ClubLexus forum!

4. Fasteners

Socket-head bolts holding the door panels on (no cheap clips here) have the word Lexus physically embossed into their heads. Even the fasteners have the Lexus stamp of quality and exist as things of beauty to be admired in and of themselves.

>>Join the conversation about the coolest features of the LC500 right here in ClubLexus forum!

5. Weighted Controls

Not only are the switches and dials in the LC 500 not cheap and plastic-y, they have been designed to be pleasurable to operate. There's a weight to the controls and just enough damping to their movement to make every click a positive one, with added feedback. Lexus packed a huge amount of function into a minimum of attractive, well-placed, and easily-operated by touch-alone controls. After using most controls a few times you won't ever have to look at them again. That's good design and it clearly took talent, research, and testing to achieve. 

>>Join the conversation about the coolest features of the LC500 right here in ClubLexus forum!

6. Infotainment System

All the testing in the world doesn't mean there isn't room for improvement, and Lexus's remote touch controller is back and very much improved on the LC 500. Lexus knows that their remote design is the future—touchpads just require too many glances too far away from the road, and too stable of a hand position to use precisely. Remote touch solves those problems, gives physical feedback, and provides a firm, comfortable, and wear-resistant platform from which to operate the infotainment system. And what a system it is. The LC 500's high resolution audio playback feature will pause whatever you were listening to (even radio) as you take a phone call, and start up again from where you left off when your call is through. 

>>Join the conversation about the coolest features of the LC500 right here in ClubLexus forum!

7. Start-Up Graphics

Both the instrument panel and the infotainment screen play a short graphic mini-movie upon startup. There's something comforting and just fun about that little something extra. It could be likened to the way tac and speedo on superbikes do a sweep from zero to max and back down again when you turn their keys. Like what one imagines a jet fighter or spaceship is like to initiate. In a perfect world, owners would be able to upload their own start-up graphics, just like everyone now does on their phones, but for now, we'll settle for what the team at Lexus has directed for us. 

>>Join the conversation about the coolest features of the LC500 right here in ClubLexus forum!

8. Tail Lights

Not only is the shape of the LC 500's tail lights cool, and an echo of the headlights, they also feature a mirrored treatment that makes them repeat as they recede into a seemingly infinite recess. 

>>Join the conversation about the coolest features of the LC500 right here in ClubLexus forum!

9. Ride

This list could go on and on (we love the leather!) but more than anything when you drive the LC 500, what you feel is a smoothness not found in any other sports coupe. How that's even possible rolling on 21-inch wheels boggles the mind. The new Lexus 10-speed automatic—which uses the lightest torque converter ever in a Lexus—delivers imperceptible shifts. Coupled with the LC 500's 400 lb-ft of torque, you're always in the right gear no matter what you plan to do. The LC 500 is a driver's car, one you don't tire of driving.

And now the answers our quiz from slide 1. Ferrari 166 Coupe engines used bolts with raised prancing horses manufactured into their heads, and the Vignale-bodied coupes at least had push-to-reveal door handles.

>>Join the conversation about the coolest features of the LC500 right here in ClubLexus forum!

To keep your Lexus on the road and running right check out the How-to section of ClubLexus.