F1 Silver Arrows
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Maybe the Lexus brand needs to be spun off or have dealers lobby for more autonomy. Acura has more freedom than Lexus does IMHO.
Lexus LFA II Megathread
- Thread starter Will1991
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Gor134
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Easy to have freedom when they only sell like 5 cars. With the TLX gone they won't have that level of freedom anymore. Just the MDX really. How is there no new RDX yet?
I don't know why people call this car a mild hybrid when it has a motor generator this big:
The battery is also the size of a strong hybrid battery
My theory is that the development troubles are more than the chassis and engine. The hybrid system as we see in its current form is also a placeholder. The motor generator is sized for a PHEV application (too big for MHEV/HEV), the battery is in between a HEV and PHEV, and there's no charging port either. The ESU looks really primitive (even larger and taller than the latest RAV4 PHEV's unit) The current power specs only include the ICE and no detail for the hybrid. The dashboard also lacks a battery charge meter. But the steering wheel has a "sport boost" button which I assume allows the driver to manually request hybrid power.
The way I see it, this GR GT/LFA announcement is a paper launch. The production car is still 18-24 months from release. It's mostly to assure their GT3 customers that they will have a new race car in 2027.
The battery is also the size of a strong hybrid battery
My theory is that the development troubles are more than the chassis and engine. The hybrid system as we see in its current form is also a placeholder. The motor generator is sized for a PHEV application (too big for MHEV/HEV), the battery is in between a HEV and PHEV, and there's no charging port either. The ESU looks really primitive (even larger and taller than the latest RAV4 PHEV's unit) The current power specs only include the ICE and no detail for the hybrid. The dashboard also lacks a battery charge meter. But the steering wheel has a "sport boost" button which I assume allows the driver to manually request hybrid power.
The way I see it, this GR GT/LFA announcement is a paper launch. The production car is still 18-24 months from release. It's mostly to assure their GT3 customers that they will have a new race car in 2027.
Plus there's no way Toyota would mount the battery so high up in the production GR GT given how much they emphasise on keeping the car's center of gravity low.
There is a distinction between low and the lowest. Current setup is very low but not super low or the lowest because super low for such big vehicle has its drawbacks too.
bogglo
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I watched this and it might explain the reasoning of the behind the battery positioning
It's never a good decision to deliberately raise a car's CoG for slightly higher acceleration. That explanation is the equivalent of putting weight in the trunk of a Mustang to improve its traction in snow. It's an incredibly dumb idea. That battery placement single handedly ruined all their engineering effort to lower the CoG of the car. It can only be explained by either (or a combination) of two things: 1) they don't have an 2-in-1 package for battery and ESU 2) they once planned to make this car 2+2 so they had to leave space for 2nd row seats.
Till this day almost every serious car maker have at least one hybrid/BEV design with a 2-in-1 package (battery+DC-AC or motor+DC-AC) if not 3-in-1 (battery+DC-AC+AC-DC) and 4-in-1 (battery+DC-AC+DC-DC+AC-DC). The state-of-the-art are now even 9-in-1. Toyota doesn't and it makes sense from a commuter car perspective (easier maintenance/repair) but for a super car you want to integrate everything when possible.
Till this day almost every serious car maker have at least one hybrid/BEV design with a 2-in-1 package (battery+DC-AC or motor+DC-AC) if not 3-in-1 (battery+DC-AC+AC-DC) and 4-in-1 (battery+DC-AC+DC-DC+AC-DC). The state-of-the-art are now even 9-in-1. Toyota doesn't and it makes sense from a commuter car perspective (easier maintenance/repair) but for a super car you want to integrate everything when possible.
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