Hmm...they are taking their sweet time aren't they? Maybe at one point they determined doing 'another 600hp V8TT but five years late' could not make it stand out and are now investigating other powertrain options.
It's really fishy that there has not been any solid confirmation on a V8 in the works. All information surrounding it has been speculations. The more I think about it, the more it begins to make sense that TMC no longer wants a V8.
I should say first that I'm no expert on the time it takes to transform a car into a F version, especially something so new like the LC. The LC was available for orders in early January 2017 with deliveries starting in early May. If the LC F is in production for deliveries in early 2020 that would be a 2.5 year gap, which doesn't seem like too much of a time lag. I would guess that they starting designing the LC F in late 2016. It must take some time to develop this car into a F version. So, I am not surprised with the delay.
regarding not revealing much in terms of details, this seems to be typical of Lexus and, perhaps, many high end lux cars (just my relatively uniformed opinion). As far as whether it will be a V8, somewhere I read that they want the LCF to compete with the GTR Nismo, which actually has a V6TT 3.8 l engine, so it does make me wonder whether they will use a TTV6. HOWEVER, IMHO it will be a TTV8; I have heard speculation that the engine will essentially be a fusion of 2 TTV4 engines (can't recall which engine from which model).
I think there will be considerable further development of the transmission. I can't see that they will just use the new 10 speed trans without modifying it a bit (the GTR NISMO has a dual clutch transmission). The new 10 speed is just not made to handle the kinds of demands of continued high performance driving. In addition, the suspension on the LC is new and excellent, but I also think that to move the LC into an F performance car, they will need to tweak that suspension more (Porsche continues to tweak the suspension of the 911 GT3; their new one for the GT3 Rs seems awesome.
Finally, they must shed weight off the LC. All of the luxury gear weight a lot and I wonder whether they will cut some of that this; they certainly will add more carbon fiber. They would have to shed 400+ pounds to bring it close to the 3911 lbs of the GTR Nismo.
whatever the case, it's fun to speculate and we are sure to see some mules out and about early 2019 if not late 2018.