Driving it, anyone can feel 'like a Grand Prix star' - Jeremy Clarkson
Raise your hands if you remember the Lexus SC400.
It had a smooth architecture so velvety only the winds of time could sculpt it. Interestingly, the reality wasn't far off. In the early 1990s, Lexus designers Erwin Lui and Denis Campbell at Calty Design Research in California were given the task to imagine what a grand tourer coupe as a counterpoint to the wildly successful LS400 would look like. But the problem was, design softwares at the time were rudimentary and just could not cope with fluid shapes.
They went back to the drawing table and reinvented the way a car should be designed: They took balloons and filled it with plaster and allowed the shape to grow organically. Here, Erwin Lui (who would mastermind the final shape), carves the plaster-filled balloons.
The advantage of this approach was that designers could see the shape evolve in tiny increments from their own hands and through their very own eyes. Like Michaelangelo taking a chisel to a slab of marble, they peeled the lines of the SC400 out of plaster.
And the results were astonishing.
The beating heart of the SC400 was the same 4.0 litre naturally-aspirated engine as the LS400, that produced 250 horsepower that was reputed to cost $400,000,000 in research and development cost. It had a century sprint of 6.7 seconds, which, for a 2 + 2 seater car of the early 90s, is an impressive figure.
Troving through the 'Interweb', I found this video of a young Jeremy Clarkson reviewing the SC400. Interestingly, the model he tested came equipped with gizmos that would shame even today's cars. You're talking touch screen controls, TV and satellite navigation. It had electronic stability programmes designed to keep the car stable even when taking fast corners. You don't need to be a Michael Schumacher to get the most of it, he says. Anyone can feel like a Grand Prix star.
Enjoy the video!
Do you remember the first time your eyes clapped on the SC400? Let me know.
Cheers
All Lexus
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