LEXUS LS400

NO BUDGET, NO TIME CONSTRAINTS, NO PRISONERS: THE LEXUS LS400 WAS JAPAN’S SHOCK TO THE WORLD THAT CHANGED THE LUXO SEDAN SEGMENT FOREVER

- DAMION SMY

Model Lexus LS400 UCF10R

Engine 3969cc V8 (900), dohc, 32v

Max power 190kW @ 5600rpm

Max torque 360Nm @ 4400rpm

Transmission 4-speed automatic

Weight 1730kg

0-100km/h 8.2sec (claimed)

Price (now) $7000 – $15,000

BUILD THE BEST CAR in the world. That was the brief from Toyota president, Eiji Toyoda, to a crack team of 4000 highly talented staff for the new ‘Circle F’ project – ‘F’ standing for ‘flagship’. It was August 1983. By 1991, that team could lay claim to a brimming trophy cabinet including Wheels Car of the Year after it achieved the unthinkable: it beat the Germans with the ground-breaking Lexus LS400.

“As a luxury car it’s almost faultless,” said our introduction to our 1991 Wheels COTY. Editor Phil Scott described the LS400 as, “The closest automotive equivalent to a Rolex watch there is.” Other judges from our 1991 COTY were just as effusive. These included Michael Stahl, who said, “Hadn’t expected the communicative ride and steering or the Lexus’s road-holding abilities.” Legendary racer Kevin Bartlett described the four-speed as, “The best automatic I’ve ever driven.”