Lexus LC Named 2017 Production Car Design of the Year

krew

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krew
17-03-08-lexus-lc-production-car-award.jpg


The award was presented at the Geneva Motor Show.
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ydooby

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The LF-LC concept won the EyesOn Design best concept car award, and four years later the LC500 won the EyesOn Design Award for Design Excellence – Production Car and EyesOn Design Award for Design Excellence – Interior Design in 2016.

The awards just keeps piling on. Well done Lexus!
 

Carmaker1

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And it's well deserved. For all those detractors of the design (current and recent past/post-reveal), lest they forget many of them were the same individuals that said the LF-LC concept was "great", but "they'll never build it" or will "water it down" too much. Clearly that didn't happen, as most OEMs only make concepts directly off of the production body, so they can trot it as "true to concept" without much effort, since an internally finalized design isn't going to change much. That is not what happened here and it shows very much.

I don't think I can respect any criticisms for this car's design, as it's very much "a concept car made for the road" and not some run-of-the-mill offering. If Lexus wanted to introduce a more sedate design for 950A's Z100 LC, we would have heard endless complaints about how, "they watered down the LF-LC" or "knew they couldn't do it".

The S Coupe Concept from 2013 was disappointingly less shark nose in the series production model, because MB cleverly thought they could take an almost ready to be launched design (styled in 2010), redo a few things, and then trot it out as an "unfinished" design study 3 years later, when they knew very well the actual car was more sedate. I commend TMC for committing to making this car happen, as it is needed no matter what any detractors say as a brand image booster. Both internal (griping over CUV) and external forces can get over it.


Comparison:
2013 "Concept" C217 design vs C217 production design (frozen 2011)
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The actual S Coupe (C217) concept sketch from 2010, unlike that sexier, yet fake design study made much later and shown in 2013 for marketing purposes.: unamused:
Mercedes-S-Class-Coupe-2%25255B2%25255D.jpg

LF-LC and LC, a genuine gestation from the designer's pen into the engineer's tools and company's machinery. That right there, is what happens when engineers cave into the demands of the designers and not what is so typical at other OEMs. I will at least give MB credit, for trying to step their designs since 2008. However unlike Lexus, MB had the benefit of knowing what their production car would look like for years and thus not deviating too much, while Lexus wouldn't know until crossing that bridge in development.

2011 Photo of LF-LC Concept and November 2015 Photo of 2018 LC500
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2010 Sketch of LF-LC by Edward Lee
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Can a moderator resize the MB photos, as I do not want them to be superimposed.
 
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Carmaker1

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TBH that looks more like an LFA with a Spindle Grille lol

These sketches Edward Lee's were probably amongst the very first he made in 2010, which was essentially year of the LFA. When I first saw the LF-LC, I instantly thought of it as the LFA's junior sibling and as something else. I believe it was supposed to be both SC 400 and LFA successor in one, but again there is more to that.

Edward Lee essentially married the beauty of both the 2007 & 2008 LF-A concepts and the Aston Martin One-77 super car into one car, with the hints of the SC 400. They knew they were developing a production car, as despite LF-LC being so organic, some engineering was behind it or sense of necessary restraint.
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(Sorry, was seriously in love with that 2007 Concept)
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I just found out, even though he has given no interviews for this car, the LC design patent filed in 2015 credits him as designer of this exterior, alongside two Japanese designers.
 
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