Okay so its not the fire breathing V8 but is the RC200T any good? We put the sensible one in the RC family to the test and in the process turned quite a few heads.
The 2-litre petrol is quick with 0-100kph taking just 7.5 seconds but we never really felt the need to drive the car hard. Lexus RC in this guise is all about comfort and style. The car’s two door coupe exterior has the right amount of agression and contemporary style thrown in to make its key rival BMW’s 4 Series look very understated. RC looks like it had a design team that grew up with Toyota Supras on their walls. As I’m one of those kids now with a bit of grey in the hair, the RC’s appearance really hits the spot.
Inside the Cabin is plush with beautiful leather seating and nice to the touch materials. The party trick that is pointless but cool at the same time is the centre speedo dial that moves to the side with the press of a button to display more info to the driver. Its ridiculous but a giggle too! Our test car had heated and cooled seats and readers let me assure you a cooled seat is fantastic.
Under the bonnet is an engine you don’t really care about because it does a great job of hauling the rear-wheel drive car around with little fuss via the slick automatic gearbox. The gearbox is an 8-speed SPDS (sports direct shift) which makes great use of what is a very light engine (160kgs). A twin scroll turbo and some clever VVTi-W (variable valve timing – intelligent wide) means you won’t want for power (245hp/350nm) should you decide to opt out of your lazy Lexus driving style into something more urgent. With a light right foot you can manage 7.1 l/100km but expect closer to 9 l/100kms in daily use. Top speed is a healthy 230kph.
On the road you can hustle the RC200T through the twisty bits as the suspension is well up for spirited driving. The suspension is a well sorted affair with double wishbones at the front and multi-link suspension at the rear, exclusively tuned by Lexus for the 200T. Various driving modes can be selected with a twist of the drive mode dial like: Snow, Eco, Normal, Sport and on F Sport trimmed models Sport +. Our F Sport test car comes with a standard fit limited slip differential plus adaptive variable suspension (AVS). Sitting on special 19 inch alloys there is no way this particular machine goes around unnoticed.
Lexus RC200T is a great looking coupe but despite its performance ability is more a grand tourer than sports car. We seldom felt the desire to hockey the car home via the twisty route but rather chilled with the great sound system and of course those beautiful cooled seats. Mercedes C Class Coupe, BMW 4 Series and the soon to be launched new Audi A5 all manage to have their own style and so does the Lexus RC… literally all these premium two door machines manage to look distinct from each other… that’s quite remarkable!
Lexus RC prices start from €49,950 for the RC300h (hybrid) with the 200T starting from €64,950 and the monster RCF V8 starts from €106,950.
