The top of the food chain for the RC line, the 2015 Lexus RC-F gets the boat-load of visual excess that’s the boldest yet from Lexus. It is in fact so artistically reaching that the shape illicits a love or hate reaction to many at first sight.
Its shape is very much architectural and technical, with complexity that clearly took designers into the far reaches of inner space when they were creating it. In trying to get my head around it I found myself wanting to turn on some Pink Floyd and stare a while.
But I digress. The unique hood has an air extractor vent in the center and special fenders have exotic looking gills behind the front wheels that make the car look serious whether they do anything much or not.
Over the standard RC it gets a unique front fascia with deeper mouth opening that has a curious double-layer grille pattern that appears they accidentally overlaid two sheets of mesh. It also gets sizable and functional brake cooling ducts.
Being cooled are rather large Brembo 15” slotted front disc brakes with Lexus logo calipers that can be seen quite well behind our testers optional 19-inch 20 spoke alloy wheels. At the rear it gets 13.6” rotors.
At the rear the outspoken styling continues with tail lights that jut out rather comically like a pair of retro Cat Eye sunglasses. Their whimsy is counterbalanced by a set of butch dual stacked tail pipes that are solid hardware, not fake styling tips.
All of the RC-F’s styling overtures are Lexus says quite functional, right down to its pop up rear deck spoiler which extends at 50 mph to add additional downforce at speed. It certainly looks cool and best of all is nearly silent in its operation.
Inside you will find one of the best interiors from Lexus. Its design is well done both from a visual standpoint as well as a functional one. Materials are some of the best with genuine carbon fiber, aluminum and sueded trims with blue accent stitching.
Fit and finish are top of the game here as is the feel of the switch gear all around. The steering wheel has paddle shifters made of metal, not cheap plastic like some. They feel solid and tactile as does the shift lever itself, a heavy duty piece.
This RC-F had the optional leather hides for its deeply bolstered sport seats. These chairs love you, they pamper you. You sit down in them, not on them. The only complaint is that the seat’s heaters didn’t really seem to get that warm.
The instrument cluster in the RC-F is a fixed dial unit with a TFT screen comprising half and a traditional dial for the speedometer. It’s infinitely customizable with any combination of performance, infotainment, navigation or trip information you want. It’s nice but I kind of like the sliding ring cluster found in the RC350 F Sport if nothing else for the novelty of it.
For infotainment, we had the full tilt Mark Levinson 835-watt audio system here with navigation. The sound is excellent and never harsh at volume. I recommend this sound system in any Lexus. It’s the new interface touch-pad that is a disappointment.
Lexus replaced the mouse-like puck I’ve loved for the past few years with a new touch-pad that is far too sensitive behind the wheel. While it’s modern and smart phone like, it allows you to overshoot the menu buttons and over reacts, sometimes pressing menu buttons when you didn’t expect it.
And I still have to gripe that Lexus puts a small infotainment screen in a large screen space. It just looks like they cheaped out here.
Rear seat space is negligible so I’m not even gonna a show it to you, but the trunk space is actually pretty impressive for this class. There’s plenty of room for road trip gear or grocery getting.
Aside the small complaints, I love this interior and it does well to make this car a great place to spend long drives as well as short fast ones on the track or on a back road. And the sound system isn’t the only thing that makes the cabin a great place.
Exotic in both sound and specification is its 5.0 liter V8 which has a respectable 467 horsepower. It revs high and you have to as the power peak comes at 7,100 rpm. Torque is 389 pound feet and also requires reaching to 5,600 rpm.
It does make a beautiful sound when you rev it though, but a very engineered one at that. The intake tract opens up past 3000 rpm and combined with some electronic sound synthesis really puts on some music for your ears.
Lexus says it will accelerate from 0-60 in 4.4 seconds which feels about right. It hooks up exceptionally well much in part to traction control nannies and throttle mapping that really doesn’t allow for tire smoking wheel spin.
While it has several drive modes the only ones enjoyable with its 8-speed automatic are Sport and Sport +. Here it shifts firm and snappy like you want and in all the right places when left in drive. If you prefer shift manually, it doesn’t always take your orders.
There’s a switch to turn off the traction control but the mother-in-law in your back seat is never really gone. She’ll allow short bursts of almost misbehavior, but will ultimately step in and shut down all-out mayhem.
In the end, this is ok for the street, making this a car one you can really push and stay within the lines. Its suspension is stiff with a mono setting, unlike its RC350 F Sport sibling which has variable dampers. It’s good stiff tho, and stays that way.
Steering however does vary a bit depending on your drive mode, but always offers up excellent feel that is increasingly uncommon in this class of late. All of this make for a chassis feel and feedback that is the envy of some from Germany.
While fuel economy might not be the major consideration for the RC-F, it is rated by the EPA at 16 mpg city, 25 mpg highway and 19 mpg combined. In our week feeding it the required Premium Unleaded, it achieved 19.5 mpg combined. Not bad.
The Lexus RC is also safe. It earns the IIHS Top Safety Pick + status because it performed good on all tests including their new small-offset crash. It also offers advanced crash prevention systems which the IIHS requires for the honors.
