Motoring Australia spoke with Lexus RX product planner Makoto Tanaka about the possibility of a high-performance RX F:
“In terms of feasibility, if you want to, is it technically possible? Yes. We have experience in the IS F, where we managed to get our V8 in the small IS sedan body, so if you [are] talking about feasibility, you could do that in RX, but there’s no plan,” he said.
Senior Lexus executives previously confirmed to motoring.com.au the next generation of its F models will be turbocharged, a break from tradition, and Tanaka reiterated the company’s research direction.
“We have to come up with alternative ideas, like lower displacement turbo and so on. Of course it’s always under study to keep developing those kinds of high performance variants of engine. But which model to put it in is the next step,” he observed.
There’s some charm in the idea of an AWD RX crossover with the Lexus 5.0L V8 engine. Given the popularity of the model, an RX F would almost certainly be the most popular F performance model ever made.
Even so, Lexus is still working to establish its performance credibility, and a souped-up crossover would do little to enhance that image. It’s one of those questions that might not have a best answer — what’s your opinion?
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