Hasta La Gadget!

Lexus couldn’t help but tease us with a little-pre Detroit show 2014 IS action last week, but the meat of the sports sedan’s reveal comes today, with the IS 250, IS 350, and further-heated F SPORT variants being officially revealed. Set to hit showrooms in mid-2013, the all-new cars – including the first hybrid in the IS range, the IS 300h – feature a vast upsizing of the Lexus spindle grille, rear- and all-wheel drive options, and performance features borrowed from the company’s bonkers LFA sportscar.

The IS 250 will have a 2.5-liter V6 gas engine, while the IS 360 will have a 3.5-liter V6 gas engine; select international markets – including Europe and Japan – will get the IS 300h, which will pair a 2.5-liter engine with electric motors. The IS 350 RWD borrows the IS F’s eight-speed sports auto shifter, while the whole range gets a Sport mode with “G force Artificial Intelligence” (G-AI) to pick the best gear and downshift pattern depending on the G forces the car is under while cornering.

Of course, serious drivers will be eyeing Lexus’ F SPORT variants, which will be offered across the 2014 IS range. In addition to changes in styling details both inside and out, the F SPORT models will get special suspension and steering tuning, and a Variable Gear Ratio Steering option on the IS 350 F SPORT specifically. 18-inch wheels of an exclusive design, and a sturdier gearbox round out the key changes.

Inside, the 3-inch longer wheelbase adds up to extra space for passengers and more room in the trunk; by slimming the front seats, too, Lexus has given those in the rear an extra 3-inches for their knees. Those rear seats also fold with a 60/40 split. As for the dash, that has touch-sensitive keys for HVAC, and touchscreen infotainment with real-time traffic and weather information, while the steering wheel gets controls for both the driver’s display and the center console screen.

As for safety, there are ten airbags, lane-departure alerts, blind spot monitoring, rear cross traffic alert, and more, some of which are standard and others cost-options. Lexus isn’t talking pricing for the 2014 IS at this stage, with the promise of numbers closer to the launch midway through the year.

Lexus 2014 IS official with F SPORT spice is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

One of the clear automotive technology trends at CES this year is cars that drive themselves. From Audi to Lexus to Ford, the world’s largest car companies are beginning to follow Google’s lead in an effort to produce cars smart enough to drive themselves. The thought is that autonomous cars will reduce the number of traffic deaths—more than 100 people per day, currently—while simultaneously allowing car owners to do more productive things on their car trips, like work or read. All of this sounds magical, especially to a traffic-jammed Angeleno like myself, but let’s get real: How soon do we actually think state and federal legislators are going to cotton to the idea of robot cars all over the roads? More »

Self-driving cars aren’t just the future, they’re the present. Sort of. They’re out there, but you can’t buy one just yet. Google of course has made waves with its driverless car and not too long ago Nissan impressed us at CEATEC with its self-driving NSC-2015. Toyota, perhaps feeling a little left out, has taken to CES to show off the Lexus Advanced Active Safety Research Vehicle, a machine capable of self-driving that, regardless, is still quite reliant on a fleshbag driver behind the wheel. Join us after the break for an explanation.

Continue reading Lexus’ autonomous Advanced Active Safety Research Vehicle and why we’re not ready for self-driving cars

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A Lexus sedan might not be the first donor car you think of for a beefy road-destroying super cruiser, but TMG’s Sports 650 take on the LS 460 could well shatter the superiority of meaty Mercedes and BMWs. The independent performance brand is better known for crafting Toyota’s F1 cars, but Toyota Motorsport Gmbh turned its hand to road-going cars with the Sports 650, a 5-liter V8 monster with a sub-4s 0-60mph sprint.

In fact, the TMG Sports 650 is expected to do the 0-60mph dash in 3.9s, and go all the way to 200mph if you have sufficient road. To do that, it pushes 650PS (641HP) through an 8-speed gearbox (with manual override) courtesy of twin turbos, sufficient to get what’s a 2,050kg, 5.1m long “heavily modified” barge to the limits.

Brembo carbon ceramic brakes help rein things in when you run out of tarmac, clamping down on special lightweight 20-inch wheels, and there’s multi-link suspension with coil springs and Sachs dampers. TMG isn’t talking pricing yet, but tells Motor Authority that production of the TS-650 could get the green light if there’s sufficient interest.

If that does happen, it would mark TMG’s transition into a performance tuning industry dominated by German marques. BMW’s M division and Mercedes’ AMG team are well known for turning the luxury car company’s more expensive models into autobahn beasts, though Lexus has dabbled with F-branded sports variants, and Jaguar is expected to reveal a super-cat of its own at the LA Auto Show this week.

TMG Sports 650 hones Lexus luxobarge into Japanese monster is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Tablets may prove to be the death of print magazines, but Lexus still has some uses for paper, paring both print and an iPad for its new animated advert. The 2013 Lexus ES launch campaign also debuts CinePrint, the car company’s clever blending of print and digital: load up the CinePrint Lexus app, put your iPad underneath the printed advert, and – with the lights down – the whole thing is animated.

The actual mechanics of it all is very simple – the light from the tablet’s display shines through, and makes the print graphics look like they’re moving – but the end result is mightily impressive. Most importantly, it gets you looking at both the print and digital versions, and for adverts getting viewers to pay attention is the key thing.

The potential for CinePrint arguably goes beyond advertising. We could also see the system being used for children’s books – where the printed copy is a standalone book in its own right, but can be augmented with animation when there’s a tablet available – or even instruction manuals, walking through more complex processes with video explanations.

We can’t see the Lexus app in the App Store yet, and it’s not clear which magazines the company will be printing the companion physical page in. If you’re impatient, you can find more details on the 2013 Lexus ES here, a four-door sedan priced from $36,100 for the gas version and $38,850 for the hybrid.

[via Robert Haslam]

Lexus blends iPad and print for animated ES advert is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.