How Lexus' Well-known Tagline Gave The SC400 Its Inspiration

Lexus’ debut automobile, the LS 400, was first unveiled on the Detroit Auto Present in 1989, and shortly established that consolation, luxurious, and efficiency can be the cornerstones of Lexus. With a 250 horsepower V8 engine and an effortlessly elegant, spacious design, it went on to be a giant hit — large, in truth. In 2006, Autoblog reviews, Toyota Motor Gross sales’ Jim Press boasted that, within the 17 years prior, the LS had been the top-selling luxurious sedan for all however two.

It was, nonetheless, nonetheless a sedan. The SC400 spawned from an effort to deliver the corporate’s burgeoning success to the altogether totally different world of the coupe. 

California’s Calty Analysis and Design began work on the SC400 in 1987, in a transfer calculated to focus on the American’s’ well-known starvation for coupes. The automobile would run on the identical engine because the LS 400, however past of that, it was a really totally different beast. Erwin Lui was requested tasked by Calty to seek out an unorthodox plan to decide on the automobile’s design. Ultimately, he selected the form by manipulating plaster-filled balloons. The last word outcome, Liu stated, based on Widespread Science in 1991, was “a form I ended up calling the fender theme. If you happen to look in conjunction with the automotive, you may see it outlined by a fender line that will get pulled across the whole physique.”