Lexus RCF Track Edition | Massively Expensive

The 2023 Lexus RC F Track Edition. While we've covered the RC F extensively since its launch on this channel, this is our first time in this particular car. This as tested $103,000 RC F represents the most track capable Lexus currently sold and one of the most expensive. It is the ultimate expression of what an RC F is. Whether or not you find value in what that is, I'll leave up to you. Let's talk about the exterior first. This car comes in any color as long as you want it. Primer gray with carbon fiber everywhere. And that's the distinguishing exterior change. You have a carbon fiber roof, wing, and a hood as standard. You also get these BBS wheels which have some carbon ceramic brakes behind them. This looks fairly exclusive and expensive. They've taken all the lessons learned from the LFA and the LC500 in their carbon works division and applied it to this RC F. That carbon fiber treatment also makes its way into the cabin. You get carbon on the doors and on the dash. They've tried to make this feel like a more special space along with cutting weight so you lose some of the luxury features like cooled and heated seats, which I don't quite understand because this is still a very heavy car. And again, much like in the IS500 or current generation IS, if you were in a coma since the mid 20 teens and had just waken up and the first thing they put you in was this RC F, you'd probably still think it was 2015 because the interior space hasn't changed all that much other than of course adding Apple CarPlay and some slight changes to the center stack. Is that a bad thing? No, it's a largely gimmickless cabin, has the technology you need, everything's easy to use, and there's essentially no learning curve. You also have good visibility in this cabin and reasonable usability while the backseat is borderline useless. You have a large enough trunk to make this a potential daily driver. With all that said, however, I think it's time for us to head into the shop and put this thing up on the lift. In the shop with the Lexus RC F Track Edition. Now we've already done an extensive video on this updated RC F where they changed engine output by a minuscule amount, they changed the body structure, they made it more rigid, and they put this car on a diet. The RC F Track Edition, however, is the hardest core RC F you can currently buy. And they took the current gen RC F and shaved some extra weight. It's about 120-ish pounds lighter than a 2020 and up RC F. How did they do that? Well, we talked about it in the interior segment. There's carbon fiber everywhere. You lose some of the luxury features in the interior space, but what they really did was they dropped about 50 pounds with these BBS wheels and carbon ceramic brakes. That is unsprung mass, which goes a long way. They went to a titanium exhaust, which sounds a little throatier, that's about 15 pounds, and they deleted the active rear wing. So in total, what they've done is they've shaved and massaged the car. Suspension tuning and suspension hardware is identical to the regular RC F. You get a Torsen in this car, you do not get the TBD or diff. The suspension spring rates are identical. However, the ABS dampers or the Lexus adaptive dampers have been retuned to deal with the extra downforce. There's minimal amount of extra downforce. You're looking at 50 to 60 pounds, which is basically nothing. The main thing is they reduced lift, which in a street-based performance car is a big deal. Most cars like this don't generate a lot of downforce, but at higher speeds, if they don't reduce lift, you get a parachute effect, which leads to instability at high speeds, which is exactly what you don't want. Drivetrain, it's the same five liter we know and love. It is not the most powerful five liter on the planet as it is naturally aspirated. So compared to something like an M4, the C63, you don't get that huge torque number, but you do get, say, a high redline, a little bit over 7,000 RPM, and it makes about 470-ish horsepower, which is great. It sounds excellent. The big detractor, of course, is the eight-speed automatic. It's Lexus's own eight-speed. It does have the ability to lock the torque converter to lead to some snappier shifts, but it's not the fastest thing in the world, and it's definitely what dates this car. Compared to something like the IS500, however, or the LC500, you get real coolers in the front of this car. So theoretically, you could run long sessions in this car and not run into any cooling issues. And as another thing, Lexus does include a performance driving school with this where you can learn from people like Scott Pruitt to become a better driver. Lexus is really still trying to embrace an enthusiast direction with the brand. But with that, I think it's time for us to take this for a quick drive around Autobahn Country Club. Chris, we're pulling out in the RCF Track Edition. You just blew 100,000 wing-wangs to buy yourself a Lexus powered by a five-liter, and something you don't know, Chris, and I found out earlier when I was reading through the technical documents, is this car puts itself into protection mode and restricts RPM and trans-programming until you put some heat into it. So you did the Lexus driving performance school in Wisconsin at Road America with our friend Alex last weekend. How was it? It was pretty cool getting a little bit of track time, especially at Road America, just being out there. We got a lot of time at the autocross and the skid pad, but we didn't get a whole lot of time on track because naturally it was pouring down, right? Oh, of course. You're with us. You know, it's a weird position for Lexus to be in right now. They're trying to turn their brand into an enthusiast brand, and clearly you have a five-liter naturally aspirated V8 that makes tremendous noises, but you are saddled with not the best gearbox. And now that the car has come up to temp, you can start to beat on it a little bit. What I'm gonna do is turn off traction and stability control. I'm gonna pull us out of expert mode. No longer an expert. We're a full-blown baboon. You know, we just drove a bunch of the performance fleet cars around Autobahn to do a different media project. And as much as I love the way this car sounds, it's not that fast. It's markedly slower than most of the other stuff that we just got out of. You know, it does have some old school charm though. This motor is why you buy it. I just think, you know, you skip over the track edition and you go right to the regular RC FF. You want a five-liter that'll last you a long time. Reliability is great, but reliability and the expense of some of the modern dynamics isn't so great. Though, the carpet ceramics in this car are excellent. Does slide good though. I guess, what else is there to talk about when it comes to this car? It's got a Torsen diff. It's the same suspension. Yes, it makes more downforce. At least on this track, you don't feel it. And the brakes are good. I mean, you spent more time in the IS500 than I did recently. How does it, I mean, it's pretty similar, isn't it? Yes. It's very, very similar. They feel the same. I mean, I will say this is the, like as a passenger, this is the comfiest to go around tracking, which is a weird compliment, sort of weird compliment. But I don't know, like the aero bits and the lightning, it's still a heavy car. Yeah, and it doesn't have the force induction of the modern German stuff and even the American stuff. I mean, this is the same price as a CT5V Blackwing. It's more money than the M2 we just drove. It's more money than a new Supra. And, you know, it's the same, if not more than a new M3. And it's slower than all those cars. I mean, what do you value, I think, becomes the question. You know, I know you want to keep talking about Cadillacs, but I don't know. I don't know how much it's worth having like the most comfortable track car you can. All right, I'd just go. You would go something else? I'd go German, I'd go German. All right, well with that, let's wrap this up. It is the most comfortable around track, honestly. Final thoughts on the RC F Track Edition. First thing I wanted to say is huge thanks to Autobahn Country Club per usual. They allow us to track our cars and experience these vehicles to their fullest. So if you're looking to do a track day, become a member for a track day rental or the Performance Driving School, please hit them up. What do I think about this car? Well, for $100,000, it's not all that competitive, I'm gonna be honest. If you love Lexus and you appreciate what they're doing and their philosophy behind the Lexus driving signature, you like the idea of Takumi's building your $100,000 RC F, you'll like this car. But if you look at it objectively, it's a bit of a dinosaur and it's not that competitive, at least from a performance perspective. Things like the Toyota Supra are much faster. Cars like the M4 and M2 blow this thing out of the water, particularly from a technology and engine performance standard. What about the car? What's it like to drive? And should you buy this over a standard RC F? Well, it's probably gonna be more desirable. That's a plus, long-term at least. And when it comes to braking, the carbon ceramics go a long way. This car is surprisingly capable for what it is on track. And that is at its core, a very old car. With that though, thanks for watching. I hope to see you soon.