Lexus RC F Track Edition Gets Brutally Honest Review
Journalist Matt Farah dings Lexus RC F Track Edition driving dynamics but praises 5.0-liter V8 and responsive gearbox.
Thanks to it’s big, charming V8 engine and striking styling, the Lexus RC F coupe has earned the respect of a lot of car enthusiasts. As a street car it’s pretty terrific, with plenty of power and handling paired with a generous helping of luxury. The Lexus RC F Track Edition is intended as a more focused RC F. But as journalist Matt Farah recently discovered, the big coupe just isn’t that great on a race track. Farah, who runs the The Smoking Tire channel on Youtube, traveled to Thunder Hill raceway in Northern California to sample a variety of cars that Road & Track magazine had assembled for their annual Performance Car of the Year test. One of those was an RC F Track Edition.
Farah comes away with distinctly mixed feelings about the Track Edition. He just can’t seem to wrap his head around the high price of the limited edition model, which at $96,000 is about $30,000 more than the normal RC F. “For that you get the same engine, gearbox and diff,” he says. “But you get better wheels and tires, you get a carbon fiber hood, a big wing and you get to say you have the track edition.” In addition to those upgrades, you do also get carbon ceramic brakes and a stiffer suspension.
Though the RC F Track Edition weighs about 176 lbs than the 3,900 lb RCF, it’s still a pretty hefty coupe. “These cars, their biggest enemy is always the weight,” notes Farah. “It feels like they tried to make the steering sharp, but they simply couldn’t win the battle against the weight. So while the steering is sharp I can feel a disconnect from those front wheels. It feels like it’s really fighting for grip at the front end there. You really have to commit to getting the back out and you really have to steer it on the throttle, which gives you less control than rotating it on the entry, but it just doesn’t really want to rotate. Brake feel is inconsistent from corner to corner.”
Despite the Track Edition coming under heavy criticism for its weight and relative lack of nimbleness- at least on track- Farah has nothing but good things to say about the Lexus’ 5.0-liter V8 engine. “The 5.0-liter v8 is a gem, an absolute gem,” he says. “I love the feel of this powertrain,” he notes early in the video. “For an automatic it has such a motorsport feel. It’s hard to ignore the sound of the engine. It’s a beautiful engine.”
Ultimately, Farah just can’t justify the Track Edition’s steep price. “For 96,000 I can’t possibly imagine who but the most diehard Lexus enthusiast is going to want to drive something like this on a track day. It’s just not particularly rewarding to drive it on a racetrack.”In the end, he recommends buying an GS-F or LC500 over the RC F. “The GSF, that’s the one,” he says. “Better balance, same powertrain, less money. Look, this engine is a gem. It’s going away, it’s not long for this world, so I do have to recommend buying something with this engine in it. It’s a phenomenal engine that is really well mated to this gearbox.”
