Lexus GS-F Rumors

240km.com has published some very interesting quotes from Lexus representatives at the Detroit Auto Show about possible applications of the LFA’s V10 engine:
As Lexus in the US focuses on finding buyers for the biggest slice of global LF-A production, the prospect of the car’s awesome 552bhp V10 finding its way into a new super-saloon remains a tantalising prospect.
Chatting to senior Lexus sources ‘off the record’ at the Detroit motor show confirmed there’s a strong desire to produce a new super-saloon that could take on the likes of Mercedes AMG and BMW M cars. Formal plans are unlikely to be formulated until the LF-A project has been declared a success by Toyota’s notoriously conservative management in Tokyo, but there’s already a head of steam building up in both the US and Japan.
The LF-A in cutaway format
The LF-A uses a carbon fibre torque tube to send its power to a rear transaxle, but such an exotic set-up wouldn’t be necessary in a saloon car installation.

“We’ve already got a transmission that can handle the engine, in the shape of the 8-speed auto fitted to the IS-F. With its torque converter lock-up it would work very well in a car like this,” we were told.

As in other markets, Lexus in the US has to overcome potential resistance to a price well above that which was originally indicated when the LF-A was first mooted as a Porsche 911 rival back in the early ‘noughties’.

It sounds like pure speculation, but it’s exciting nonetheless—I know from my own discussions with the Lexus people at the show that the high-revving LFA engine would be entirely unsuited for the LS lineup and its expected refinement, which would leave the GS as the only real Lexus model capable of handling the 552hp V10.

The big issue is the price—I was told the LFA engine could add upwards of $60-70k to the MSRP, which would push a potential GS-F over $100k and make it more expensive than a BMW M5 or a Mercedes E63. A tall order to be sure, and one that would require a significant rethink of the Lexus sports sedan.

And yet, as easy as it would be to dismiss the idea, the LFA itself is proof that anything’s possible. No one was expecting a $400k Lexus supercar, and yet only three months after its introduction, the entire production run has been spoken for. It’s for that reason that I’m not giving up hope on a GS-F, and from the sounds of the Pistonheads article, neither is Lexus