7,300 RPM in a 2025 Lexus LC 500! | POV Drive

All right you guys, special one today. This is a 2025 Lexus LC500. I'm gonna take you on a quick POV drive today and see how it does. I know this car has been out for a long time, six or seven years, but last year they did do a big update. They improved the infotainment, they got rid of the touchpad, that's about it. But this one here sitting in front of me in this copper crest, this pink color, when the sun hits it, it's incredibly pink. Almost, dare I say, bright pink, and then it kind of has this champagne color in the shadows here. This is not how I would spec my LC500, but stunning car overall. I've never been a fan of kind of hourglass grille here that Lexus does, but I think this is the best implementation of it by far in any of their vehicles. The IS500 looks great, but you guys know the LC500 is something else. This is the top of the Lexus lineup as it sits right now. 21-inch wheels, this one's sitting on Pilot Sport S5s. Michelin's new tire here. I believe this is the first car I've ever driven with this tire on it actually. It does have the carbon roof, which comes with the performance pack. Also comes with rear steer. So at lower speeds, of course, you guys probably know this already, but the rear tires will turn opposite of the fronts to effectively shrink the car and make it feel smaller. And then at higher speeds, they go along with the fronts to make it a little bit more stable. Front engine, of course, rear wheel drive. Under the hood is a naturally aspirated five liter V8, the 2UR V8, 471 horsepower, 398 pound-feet of torque. So enough, the car weighs just over 4,300 pounds. As well, it's got a 10-speed automatic transmission, and it's a grand tourer. It's not trying to be overly performance-oriented, not so buckled down, but at the same time, it's not priced where the Vantage is from Aston Martin or the AMG GT is, right? Those top spec models. So it's a little bit more accessible. Trunk space is limited back here. There's not really much space at all. They do have this net, which kind of helps, but yeah, not much going on back there. My argument would be actually, especially for Lexus's next kind of halo car that they come out with, especially if it's more hardcore, which seems like that's the direction they're going. Delete the rear seats. Just give me more cargo space in the back, like some of the other GT cars. The back seats are fine, but that would be my argument, okay? Let's take a look at the engine real quick, and then we'll go for a drive because I know that's what you're here for. There she is, 2UR. Huge reinforced strut towers here, fake carbon fiber engine cover. And of course, it's front mid-engine, so most of the weight is either over the front axle or behind. It looks like maybe two cylinders are ahead of the front axle. This is, as far as weight distribution goes, about 52 in the front and 48 in the rear. Whereas the Lexus LFA, because it had a transaxle in the rear, the transmission was in the rear of the car, the weight balance was actually rearward, which is nuts, but what a stunner. What a great looking car. All right, let's go for a drive. Start it up. We do have our new infotainment screen here. That's one of the updates they made for the 2024 model year, so they brought the screen closer. They got rid of the trackpad. There was no trackpad here, just your heated seat settings right there, and then your camera view and your volume. They also have got rid of the analog clock. There was, well, back here, there was an analog clock that used to be there. It's gone. That's copyright music. Electronically opening glovebox, and a beautiful interior. Absolutely stunning interior. Tan leather everywhere, Alcantara and tan seats. These are part of the performance package. Same with the headliner here, and a couple of holy crap handles. It's really cool. You'll notice actually that the driver door and the passenger door are incredibly different in design as far as where this would have a handle, but of course I'm not the passenger. I'm holding on to the steering wheel. This is stunning. I love this detail with the door handle there, but we will put it in Sport Plus, and then I'll let you guys hear it for a second. Up here, you just click that up twice. Gauge cluster changes, reminiscent of the LFA. On the other side, we've got our traction control. We will keep that on today, just because there's a couple of damp spots, and steering wheel mounted paddle shifters, but let's go drive. So all LC500s do come with adaptive suspension. I've been driving most of the time in comfort, to be honest. The dampers still react really quickly, so it's not like I feel like there's a lack of body control. It's still very composed and feels a lot smaller than I would have expected, but obviously for the sake of the video, we're going to go into manual mode and shift ourselves. Let's go. That never gets old, I promise you. The downshifts are aggressive. The transmission tends to get better the quicker you drive. That's what I've found. If you leave it in auto, it's great all the time, but if you're in manual at lower speeds, especially the downshifts, they tend to upset the car a little bit, but see there that the blips are perfect. They get more aggressive and crisper if you have the car in Sport Plus and are taking advantage of what the engine just wants to do naturally. Which is rev. It does have dual VVTi as well, so both on the intake side and the exhaust side. There is a noticeable shove above 4,000 RPM of power, and while there's not a ton of mid-range, like 3,500, plenty of torque. It's just effortless. That's what this car is. It's taking this road really well. This is a bumpy and uneven road, and even in Sport Plus, it gets barely stiff, but not artificially or overly stiff. I never feel like the LC500's trying to make me feel a certain way. It's got variable ratio power steering as well. That's traction control coming in, but very non-invasive. You never really notice it. Just sounds so good. That variable ratio power steering, at lower speeds, it's actually more direct. The ratio quickens, and then at higher speeds, it becomes more of a GT car. It loosens up a little bit, but you never lose the sharpness. It's got decent feel. Power everywhere. The torque curve is as flat as it gets. It's pretty perfect. There are almost no gripes I have with this car. Very few. It only has one cup holder. You could call in there a cup holder, but that's not really what that's for. I have made it work, but so effortless. The brake feel is good. It's not really hydraulic or mechanical feeling. What I mean by that is, in a McLaren, let's say, you'll have a very short pedal travel, and it's firm. It gets firm even close to the top of the pedal. Here, it's still got Lexus feel, but it has confidence. See, I should have set my custom mode. I would have the dampers in comfort right now, especially on this road, and then just have the engine in full sport mode. It's brutal. The engine noise is just brutal. That's what Lexus does. Lexus has done that for so long. The 1UZ, the 2UZ, the 3UZ, all the way back from the LS400. Just torquey, smooth V8s. If you guys want to check out the main channel video, since we've got this Ford Escape here, you can check it out. The link is in the description. In that video, I do also drive this car, obviously, but I mainly talk about Lexus and what their next halo car is going to be, the replacement for the LFA. They've dropped a bunch of facts and teasers for that, concepts, and people have begun seeing whatever that replacement is in camouflage around the world at various racetracks. I thought that was interesting. What I hope for that car in short is, to put it simply, I want that car to just have a high-revving, naturally aspirated engine, whether it be a V8 or V10, with a hybrid system, because I'm assuming they're going to go hybrid. I feel like that's an obvious thing. Just to have that for torque fill at the lower and mid RPMs, and then at the top end, just like the Lamborghini Revuelto, let that engine rev out and sing, and just do what naturally aspirated engines do best. So good. All right, you guys, thanks for watching. That's been the 2025 Lexus LC500, just a great buy. $93,000 base, if you don't want the performance pack, I would highly suggest it, but call it $100,000 US, worth the buy. I don't think these are going to lose value anytime soon, but that's just my guess. What do I know? Subscribe if you haven't already. We'll see you next time. Oh, and real quick, before I go, I forgot to mention, the performance pack also gives you a Torsen LSD in the back, which much like the Nissan Z, without the performance pack, you don't get that. So that's the biggest thing here. I think you could do without rear steer, you could do without the variable ratio steering rack, but I think the LSD, if you're going to drive this like you stole it, is a must.