Motoring Australia has more information on the ongoing mystery of the Lexus RC F’s final horsepower figure:
“More than 450 horsepower” – or 335kW – is the inkling as to the new car’s performance. But even that number is due to change, with engineers still working on enhancements tipped to add another 10 or 15kW.
Lexus boss Mark Templin says them secrecy is because the engineering work is still being finalised.
“It’s more of our engineers will keep tweaking and tweaking and tweaking every car we have until they’re ready to launch,” said Templin, defending the chief engineer. “[RC F chief engineer Yaguchi] just hasn’t done final testing on that car, that’s all.”
He also reiterated the emphasis on this performance car was not on the numbers.
“It’s not about zero to 60 or zero to 100 or braking from 100 to zero or any of those, it’s when you put all of those things together to make it the most balanced car is what they’re trying to create, not the fastest or the one that will go around the corner best, it’s about balance of all of those things.”
(For reference, the kW power numbers above convert to between 463-470 horsepower.)
In my discussions with Lexus executives at the Detroit Auto Show, the RC F’s final horsepower figure depends on balancing power and fuel economy — I’m expecting a pleasant surprise when the final numbers are released.
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