MONTICELLO, N.Y. — The setting was a wide track with large, perfectly manicured grass runoff areas that sits in a valley with its extremities running up and down the hills that feed into this depression. Its pavement describes arcs from surprisingly tight to wide open, joined by straights of varying lengths.

The quick lead-and-follow undertaken in an RC F proved it to be fast but not brutally quick, and capable of sticking resolutely to the tarmac. That, and its 476 hp/389 lb.-ft. V8 makes a wonderful, primal sound. I coveted a chance to try the same exercise in the RC F Sport with all-wheel drive and rear-wheel steering to see if the latter option was as benign as it had appeared on the roads out to the track.



However, time was short and there was another, more important member of the family to evaluate, one that wasn’t available for lapping purposes. Just outside the clubhouse sat a base RC 350 wearing optional 19-in. wheels and tires, but devoid of all the technology (Variable Gear Ratio Steering, Adaptive Variable Suspension, Torque Vectoring Differential, etc.) that is available on the RC F Sport and V8-powered RC F. It was the prefect test subject.

There is a purity and clarity of communication that you can only find in the base version of any vehicle. As the foundation on which all other models are built, a vehicle’s strengths and weaknesses often are laid bare in the most prosaic model, its messages unadulterated by the ladling on of performance parts and technology. Taking the RC 350 out on to the roads surrounding New York’s private Monticello Motor Club would tell me more about the car’s inherent positives and negatives than a handful of hot laps in its more performance oriented brothers.

This was all the more important with this particular Lexus in that it is not an IS coupe. No, the RC is the automotive equivalent of genetically modified food, a Japanese Boris Karloff “Frankencar” that combines the front end of the Lexus GS with the center section of the IS C convertible, and mates this mashup to the rear end of the current IS.

The reason for this is that the GS has the width Toyota engineers wanted, the IS C has the underbody stiffening, and the IS has the multi-link independent rear suspension necessary to make it all work. But would this “bitza” (bits of this, bits of that) marriage of metal result in a car that could compete with Audi’s 5 Series, BMW’s 4 Series, and the  Mercedes C-Class coupe?

The roads that surrounds the Monticello Motor Club lead into Cuddebackville, NY, and wind along the various lakes that are part of this vacation area. The elevation changes seen on the track are replicated on the road, oftentimes in much more abbreviated spaces, with the road closely following the terrain as it meanders between houses and lakes. Double-apex and off-camber turns are common, and their ability to surprise provides a perfect test for any vehicle’s chassis tuning. Stir in a combination of smooth and pockmarked pavement, and you have a true test track.

This was all the more important with this particular Lexus in that it is not an IS coupe. No, the RC is the automotive equivalent of genetically modified food, a Japanese Boris Karloff “Frankencar” that combines the front end of the Lexus GS with the center section of the IS C convertible, and mates this mashup to the rear end of the current IS.

The reason for this is that the GS has the width Toyota engineers wanted, the IS C has the underbody stiffening, and the IS has the multi-link independent rear suspension necessary to make it all work. But would this “bitza” (bits of this, bits of that) marriage of metal result in a car that could compete with Audi’s 5 Series, BMW’s 4 Series, and the  Mercedes C-Class coupe?

The roads that surrounds the Monticello Motor Club lead into Cuddebackville, N.Y., and wind along the various lakes that are part of this vacation area. The elevation changes seen on the track are replicated on the road, oftentimes in much more abbreviated spaces, with the road closely following the terrain as it meanders between houses and lakes. Double-apex and off-camber turns are common, and their ability to surprise provides a perfect test for any vehicle’s chassis tuning. Stir in a combination of smooth and pockmarked pavement, and you have a true test track.

Thankfully, all-wheel drive also is available when ordering the F Sport package. Bizarrely, the F Sport package requires that you also take the $1,100 power tilt/slide moonroof option, but gives you the option of choosing Summer or All-season tires. The F Sport package costs $3,985 on rear-drive cars, and $3,580 when ordering all-wheel drive, despite the fact that F Sports with AWD get a standard heated steering wheel the rear-drive version doesn’t get.

This option package also includes a unique front fascia with full-mesh grille, handsome 19-in. split 10-spoke wheels, the same trick gauge cluster found on the IS F Sport sedan, heated/vented front sport seats, perforated leather on the steering wheel and shift knob, aluminum sport pedals, stainless steel door scuff plates, a black headliner, a tuned sport suspension, Adaptive Variable Suspension with Sport+ mode, a less intrusive vehicle stability system, and Blind Spot Monitor with Rear Cross Traffic Alert. This last item is a $600 stand-alone option on the RC350, or is packaged as part of either the Premium Package or Luxury Package.

It’s not standard on all models, according to Lexus marketing types, as the entry-level buyer is price sensitive. Those in the cold weather states will appreciate the $220 Cold Weather Package that includes color-keyed headlamp washers, a windshield wiper deicer, and a high-intensity heater.

The RC F Sport driven from White Plains to Monticello was fitted with the optional Variable Gear Ratio Steering with Dynamic Rear-wheel Steering system ($1,900) and all-wheel drive. It also featured the $2,610 Navigation with Mark Levinson option. It includes a high-resolution touchscreen, hard disc drive navigation system, touchpad interface, and a 17-speaker, 835 watt Mark Levinson audio system. Painted Blue Mica 2.0 (a $595 option), it was resplendent against the greens of the parkway, and attracted the attention of the driver of a white BMW 4 Series who hovered around the car to the point where he nearly missed his exit.

Most of the RC Fs in our wagon train were painted an orange called Infrared, and stood out from the crowd. From the A-pillar forward, the sheet metal is unique. That’s because the standard stampings won’t fit around the quad-cam V8 under the hood. This gives the RC F the same overstuffed front end found on the outgoing IS F (the RC F effectively replaces that car in the Lexus lineup), and can best be described as “purposeful”. Revved  with gusto (a favorite pastime of the fan boys in our group), the V8 has the refined yet guttural roar that could only come from a V8.

Its song can be heard in the cabin, but not so much that it intrudes. You won’t be driven mad by the engine droning along at cruising speeds. Moving up to this model — of which Lexus plans to sell just 2,500 per year in the U.S., its biggest market — will set you back $62,400, and it rises steeply from there.

Forget about all-wheel drive or all-season tires. The RC F comes equipped with Michelin Pilot Super Sport tires and drives only the rear wheels through its eight-speed paddled-shift automatic transmission. You can order three packages, however, one of which is the $280 Cold Weather Package. It adds headlamp washers, a windshield wiper deicer and a heated steering wheel. The $4,400 Premium Package adds heated/ventilated front seats with driver’s seat memory, carbon fiber interior trim, Blind Spot Monitor with Rear Cross-traffic Alert, L-shaped LED headlamps (all RCs are fitted with LED headlights), and Intuitive Park Assist.

To this the $5,500 Performance Package adds a carbon fiber roof, replaces the speed-activated rear wing with one made from carbon fiber, and fits a Torque Vectoring Differential (TVD). This last item contains a pair of electric motors, one on each side of the differential, to transfer power across the differential to the outside rear wheel when cornering.

There’s even a display that you can call up in the instrument cluster that graphically shows the amount of torque being shuffled between the wheels, and which allows you to pick from one of three settings: Standard, Slalom and Track. Even with the vehicle dynamics control system dialed down in Sport+ mode, the TVD does yeoman work keeping the tail underneath you in the corners. And it does so in a (mostly) transparent manner.

Whereas the standard RC 350 comes fitted with 13.15-in. ventilated front disc brakes with four-piston calipers and 12.2-in. ventilated rear discs with two-piston calipers, the F Sport ups this to 14.06-in. ventilated front discs with four-piston calipers, and retains the same rear brake setup as the RC350. As you might expect, Brembo provides the brake for the RC F. It features 15.0-in. vented rotors clamped by six-piston opposed aluminum calipers up front, and 13.6-in vented rear rotors with four-piston opposed aluminum calipers in the rear. Interestingly, the RC 350 and RC F Sport have a five-sensor, five channel ABS system, while the RC F uses a four-sensor, four-channel design.

Even more interesting than all of that is the fact that Lexus expects 50% of RC 350s to be sold with the F Sport package. This number could even rise to as high as 60% of sales. That would mean selling 7,500-9,000 F Sports and 6,000-7,500 non-F Sport RC 350s, with a further 2,500 RC Fs for good measure.

When looked at from this angle, it’s apparent that Lexus will be recouping most if not all of the profits lost through the sale of the highly revised, limited production RC F with the F Sport. It is the beast of burden as Lexus travels the long road necessary to synchronize its desire to be thought of in the same breath as Audi, BMW and Mercedes, with the image buyers have of the brand. The RC models are just the latest shot in this rejigging of the Lexus brand (the current IS and the NX small SUV were the first).

How it proceeds from here depends not only on the reaction to this car, but to the inevitable changes that will have to be made in the next generation of GS and LS sedans, as well as its plethora of SUVs. Pull up a chair. This is going to take a while.

— Christopher A. Sawyer (The Virtual Driver)