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2014 Lexus IS gets TRD bits

Toyota Racing Development (TRD) in Japan has designed cosmetic and performance bits that give the 2014 Lexus IS a front-to-back workover. Different from the F-Sport parts we expect from Lexus here, the full body kit runs 437,700 yen ($4,285 US) and starts with air deflectors at the lower edges of the front bumper, through to side skirts, a decklid spoiler and a rear bumper with a diffuser and quad exhaust tips.
For 288,750 yen ($2,830) you can sharpen responses with new shocks, springs, dampers, sway bar and bracing. The priciest individual component is the set of 19-inch wheels, four of them going for 527,625 yen (5,170 US). There's no word on US importation or pricing yet, but done up all in black like the IS above, we wouldn't mind seeing it here.

2015 Lexus RC F

I didn't get a chance to drive the Lexus IS F until 2009, two years after the car had gone on sale, but I still vividly remember the day it happened. Having piloted almost every other vehicle in the Lexus lineup at that point, I was stoked to finally get some wheel time in the V8-powered, flared-fender muscle sedan, but fully expected the car to offer a quick, sanitized and ultimately un-driverly experience. Lexus built well-screwed-together, comfortable, quiet, reliable luxury cars for the timid, right?
As it turned out, I was 100-percent incorrect. When the premium brand's lauded "skunkworks team" crammed that massive V8 into the innocent IS, and then tuned the thing for competent hot laps at Fuji Speedway (F = Fuji, if you haven't heard), they seemingly forgot every brand value that Lexus had curated over the previous 20 years. It was raw and loud, had fast-twitch reflexes and a penchant for power slides, and it went unyieldingly across the road surface like a racecar cut loose from the paddock.
As far as Ur- models and origin stories go, the IS F and Lexus F has a pretty compelling, if new, set. A backdrop against which the sequel, this 2015 RC F, must inevitably be viewed. Sure, the otherworldly LFA may have intervened as the second F model, but the RC carries forward an evolution of the 5.0-liter V8 thumper, some shared body and chassis constructions, similar in-your-face design and a ticket price that's squarely in the mix for premium buyers with a hankering to smoke tires.

This is Lexus' trick 3D ad in Sports Illustrated's swimsuit issue

Having driven its RC F into the party at the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue, Lexus is making the most of the exposure. We recently saw the blue coupe showing off its L-Finesse curves with a curvaceous Lisalla Montenegro. And a new video shows how the magazine ad will also work without a bikinied sidekick, showing off the Lexus' own body and sounds in a 3D app for iOS and Android.
After downloading the app and the 3D image for your tablet or phone, the 450-horsepower RC F will be yours to play with - or, as Lexus suggests, yours to "create the 3D experience in your own hands." You didn't have any other plans for your hands while checking out the new issue, did you? The video below will show you how it's done.