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What a messy race the Rolex 24 turned-out to be! Daytona was wetter than a haddock's bathing costume, which made for a disappointing streaming experience... But, through it all, a good race for Lexus and their new team. You can read about it here. Meanwhile, look at this: Oh, by the way, it is the Bathurst 12hrs this weekend. No Lexus involvement, but a great race and the weather can't help but be better! Coverage will be on the Nismo YouTube channel, and full details of the race are available here.

41% thermal efficiency is commendable achievement, but does highlight how poor ICE engines are! UX is certainly impressive technically, let's hope its also as impressive to drive and be a passenger in. I'll take it as read it will be reliable! 😁

Just over a day now until the start of qualifying at Daytona for the 57th Rolex 24. Forty seven cars competing in four categories, a combined infield and oval track for a whole day's race, what's not to like? Lexus enter their third season in GTD (that's D for Daytona, not Diesel!), with RC-Fs that are the same specification as the GT3 cars we see in the Blancpain GT series. With new tyres this season in Weathertech, I read there was some talk of the need to slow down the GTD cars as they were getting too close the the GTLM spec cars from the class above! A new team is charged with running the Japanese two cars this year, the new AIM Vasser Sullivan outfit who showed a good turn of speed at the recent Daytona test. 24 hours though, will be a very different kettle of fish... There's a nice preview to all the makes in GTD here at dailysportscar. Elsewhere, full details of the Weathertech Sportscar Championship can be found at the IMSA website. Over the weekend live streaming should be available in UK on imsa.tv. One year it was properly foggy at dawn; not the best conditions for motor racing, or streaming... 😁 Good luck, Lexus! PS: Lexus appear to be committed to GTD - at least for the immediate future - and are not looking to move into any prototype formula. News article here.

Indeed, I have watched all his Lexus videos, and few more beside, even things I'd never consider.

Funnily enough, I watched his two part review of the RC200t this weekend. Alex On Autos is pretty good too [I think I posted a link to one of his videos in the UX part of this forum].

Anyway, a quite positive article here on Car. Unusual to find a journalist who is able park the understeer/oversteer part of his brain for the entire length of a review...

I wouldn't want a 600hp Aston Martin with FWD, granted. But I think your being a unfair on the ES with a modest 200hp, FWD (nowadays) is more than capable of handling that. And away from the willy-waving of the MSports, AMGs etc,, 200hp is enough for a luxury car which isn't built to be ragged like a Type-R.

You mean, reliable enough to be under three years old on a company fleet? Implying not somewhere to sink your heard earned after that for the long term? I still didn't get how you can dismiss 'slow' cars as boring. Do you not enjoy driving? What is your minimum horsepower requirement to make a car 'interesting?

That is nonsensical; I just blanked it out as a bit of journalistic filler! Are you confident in your statement that "...in Premium car segment where driving dynamics is important part..."? You aren't surely suggesting that everyone driving the 'usual suspects' (A6, 5-series, E-Class) wants to feel their cars adhesion on the limit, lift-off oversteer, every ripple of the tarmac, every crashing expansion joint and pot-hole, every single minute they are behind the wheel? How many of that unholy trinity you see pounding the motorways are anything other than a fleet managers choice anyway? Lexus should ashamedly make a home for people who value comfort, quality and refinement above ultimate driving dynamics. Even if that means dropping the F-Sport from most of their line-up. People still buy Volvos after all. Discuss.

I know, I did do a double take on that. Unless of course the HJ journalist got the wrong end of the stick, but then he does go on to say "...next year, with a bit of luck, that figure might reach 1000...", which adds credence. In the UK, I imagine even the least popular variant of the Audi A6 sells 700 units every month!

I shouldn't worry about the in-house VAG magazine, they have to keep their principal advertisers happy, and their biddable readership. I read that Lexus are looking to sell a meagre 700 ES in its first year in the UK. Not a massive target. Enlightened folk like us (!) will buy the right Lexus for us, the problem is for greater sales amongst the Audi/Mercedes/BMW set is getting the - generalising here - image obsessed user-chooser company-car driver to realise it's not all about office car park Top Trumps and what Jeremy Clarkson thinks (or whoever it is people follow now). If only you could say to them: "drive the thing, and imagine it's 200 miles to go to home, its a wet Wednesday evening, brake lights are stacked for 800 yards ahead. Hmm, that understeer-oversteer balance doesn't seem quite so important now, does it? " [Channelling Alan Partridge there]. Some hope. Anyway, just so long as Lexus sell enough to keep it in the UK market, so I consider one in five years time... 😁

Wow, been longer than I thought since I posted in this thread, but this evening my subscription to the - imho, excellent - savagegeese channel popped=up with their review: He has done loads of Lexus reviews, and I think I have watched everyone of them!

It's a strange fixation isn't it? If I want a sporty car, I'll get a sporty car. If I want a conformable car, I'll buy, oh wait... I can't any more! Not sure if this fetish came first from the journalists or from the company-car-user-chooser. Either way, they seem to feed on themselves and perpetuate the cycle. I think when people play office car park Top Trumps, 'wallow' isn't on the card.

Review on Honest John as well today, although not by the hatted-one himself. "...rubber-band..."? Check! Annoying how the paid for links at the bottom of all five pages of that contain this:

Aye, sadly predictable from the VW in-house magazines. Funny isn't, that evo - a magazine you'd think would emphasise performance even more - actually gives a fairer review. More grown-up journalists, perhaps? I consider myself a 'keen driver' but I don't feel the need to be flicking between understeer and oversteer at every roundabout, or flooring the throttle on every straight. I imagine there are a lot like me, especially here... 😁

Never had a first generation IS, then? 😊 Fingers crossed. Have you had the GS from new? Just wondering if it has ever had a dodgy repair with a previous owner. Another possibility, rather than just any old dirt it is encrusted 'animal' (hence the tinge).

That's unbelievable! And free you say? Is this some parallel universe? [Or is because the car park is no longer structurally sound... 😱]

There could be something in that, below taken from p32 of the GS brochure:

Saw my first ES at Lexus Reading this afternoon. Only mooched about the outside but man, yes: it is a big car. Not suited to nudging into hedges on country lanes, I'd suggest!

Oh dear, you do realise you might have shortened the engine life now with such a stunt, may be to as little as 250,000 mikes... 😉 Enjoy your new drive, looking forward to seeing how your thoughts develop over the coming weeks and months.

Here we go again! Well, almost. The so-called "Roar Before the Rolex 24" will run for two days from tomorrow at Daytona. It is the first opportunity for the North American RC-Fs to have a proper run in their new team, AIM Vasser Sullivan. For those Twits amongst you, their Twitter page is here. I hope they won't mind that I've nicked a picture, just to show the new colour scheme as the Lex comes off the truck...

Ah, the happy days when Rolls weren't so..., well; vulgar...

I think it might be because UK garages are so tiny nowadays your are more likely to damage the car taking it in and out than leaving on the street! 😉 I just cancelled my auto-reneweal with the insurer I've been with for about ten years, as even with the depressingly inevitable "I'm leaving you..." phone call, they couldn't get close to a quote by another well know insurer (who bizarrely, are part of the same group!). I have my house insurance with them as well, and as soon as I included this in the on-line quotation form, another £30 came off. Total saving on auto-renewal was about £94. What a mad system.

My pleasure! 😁