Last week, Lexus pulled the covers off the all-new RCF in a glitzy showroom launch that left grown men speechless. There were oohs, ahs and “I wants” coming from every corner, but the problem was, only three would be answered, as that was all that was being allocated to Manila. But not being a man that you can easily say no to (trust me, I have personal experience here) somehow, Lexus Manila president Danny Isla was able to work his magic and raise that allocation to 21. All of which have been spoken for. Just to give you an idea of just how impossible that feat was, Singapore have been given less than a handful and Thailand have been allocated 0. Same goes for Malaysia and Indonesia. So why the hysteria? It is not so much the mystery of how they crammed 477 hp and 550 Nm of torque into that 5.0-liter V8, it is more how they crammed all that power, luxury and performance into 5.8 million pesos. To answer that, you would need to understand the history of the F series, which all began with the SC430. It was Lexus’ first stab at a proper sports car and came off the shelf with an all-aluminum retractable hardtop and a 4.3 liter V8 that produced 300 hp. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 I know, I know, even a Camry can do that now, but those were impressive figures for 2001. And more importantly, it planted Read More …
