1997 Blue Es300 Lexus on 2040-cars

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2013 Lexus GS450h [w/video]

An Unlikely Star in the Lexus Stable
Think about Lexus for a second. Odds are your gray matter is busy regurgitating images of the company's middle-aged RX crossover or possibly the midsize ES sedan. As the volume movers for Toyota's luxury fleet, the two are the default ambassadors for everything with an italicized L pinned to the grille, and that's a damned shame. As the 2013 GS450h is so willing to point out, Lexus engineers are busily crafting models that offer drivers more than a safe luxury choice.
As the master of fuel-sipping battery propulsion, Lexus has brought the impressive width of Toyota hybrid engineering to bear on the GS450h. The result is a vehicle that manages to sneak its hybridness by you with buttery acceleration, stone quiet operation and brakes that don't feel like you're trying walk around the house in Velcro socks. The drivetrain doesn't feel the need to beat you over the head with its battery pack or announce to the neighborhood that you're saving the world one whispery mile at a time. Both driver and passengers get to enjoy a luxury car that just so happens to be a hybrid instead of the other way around.

Super Bowl commercials: Steven Tyler, Emerson Fittipaldi, Keanu Reeves and more

Sunday is Super Bowl LII, which means America will immerse itself in high-calorie potluck fare, garish halftime-show entertainment (Justin Timberlake, bringing sexy back, but not that kind), the most expensive and over-the-top TV ads of the year, and — oh yeah — a football game between two teams connected by Amtrak's Northeast Corridor line. What else you gonna do on the first Sunday of February? As usual, automakers plan big, splashy TV spots to reach all those gajillions of eyeballs glued to the teevee, though the list may be shorter than in previous years. Here's a roundup of what we know is coming. Hyundai Hyundai will test the football/futbol divide with a 60-second spot starring a youth-soccer ref who arrives for the game dramatically and just in time in his 2018 Kona. Only it's Super Bowl Sunday, so he — along with the two coaches, and apparently most of the parents — are eager to get on with their game-day plans. Advantage: football, being the message, we guess. The ad does make a quick plug for Hyundai's BlueLink nav system, but this is only nominally about the car. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Hyundai also plans a 60-second ad that recognizes people fighting pediatric cancers and highlights its own nonprofit organization that focuses on the cause, according to Reuters. Kia This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. The Korean automaker will put Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler behind the wheel of its new Stinger on an abandoned racetrack. The former " American Idol" host promptly puts it into reverse, going back to his '70s heyday, courtesy of some CGI, to the strains of "Dream On" played backwards. Trotting out an almost-70-year-old to relive some classic rock glory fits the Super Bowl template to a T. Two-time Formula One and Indianapolis 500 champ Emerson Fittipaldi also makes a cameo. It airs in the third quarter. Lexus This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Lexus teams with Marvel Studios to preview its forthcoming movie "Black Panther," which arrives in theaters Feb. 16. In "Long Live The King," the Black Panther, a.k.a. King T'Challa, played by Chadwick Boseman, dispatches some bad guys to recover stolen Vibranium after clinging to the roof of a speeding 2018 LS 500 F Sport, driven by co-star Danai Gurira.

TMG's super Lexus LS Sports 650 gets track tested

The people at Toyota Motorsport GmbH have been responsible for the Japanese automaker's motorsports efforts since the 1970s, but since Toyota pulled out of Formula One after the 2009 season, the tuning shop has been developing a super sedan based on the Lexus LS called the Sports 650. Details on TMG's first road car have been scarce, but XCAR was recently invited to drive the 641-horsepower Lexus on track.
Here's what we know: the Sports 650 has enough power to sprint to 60 miles per hour in under four seconds, tops out at 199 mph, weighs over two tons and utilizes LFA brakes. Oh, and its twin-turbo V8 bellows like an AMG V8. That last part isn't surprising when considering TMG could become Toyota's in-house tuning arm - like AMG is to Mercedes-Benz. As for the bespoke body kit, fender flares and stacked exhaust pipes? They fit the car well and even remind us a bit of Lexus' other high-performance sedan, the IS F. Currently there are no plans for the Sports 650 to be made into a production car, but we doubt TMG is devoting this much effort developing the LS into a road-rocket for nothing.
Check out XCAR's video below to see the AMG-fighter wrung out on track, and then ponder what could be if TMG were let loose to fiddle with other cars in Lexus' lineup. Now that's something we could get used to!