I have a hardcover, 213 page book that was released at the time Lexus was launched back in late 1989. It’s full of pictures, drawings, charts, and specifications along with extensive details on all aspects of these wonderful vehicles. Unfortunately it’s written in Japanese. Has anyone ever seen this book before and know what it was used for? Is it common or a rare find? I’d like to get it in the hands of an enthusiast as I do not own a Celsior. Here’s a few pictures from it…

 

that's awesome i love this sort of literature! unfortunately i can't read any japanese lol but i'd love to know what's being tested in that big spiky room

 

It's an anechoic chamber. The spikes (and the rest of the room behind them) absorb and dissipate either sound or radio waves in the room so that you can precisely measure a specific object's emissions.

 

I think it's rare here in the States, or anywhere outside of Japan really. But in Japan it might not be as hard to find. As far as what was it used for? It looks like promotional literature to me, they were very proud of the celsior and allocated a massive budget to launch, so that would include promotional literature, like books, other car companies do the same thing. I can find the same book elsewhere online, but not here in the States its hard to find in that respect. Nice find though. I don't think it was used for anything other than promotional purposes. It may very well have been on the tables of dealership showrooms in Japan for customers to flip through the pages, that kind of thing.

 

Or also simply for posterity. It's like hey, we know built a hell of a car here and we're going to put it in a book forever because we are very proud of what we built as they should be, simply so information is out there and not forgotten, or lost. Could be why they created these books. It's a document of what it took to build these to such high quality standards, yea for sure I could why they would want to put it in books.

 

yea it's clearly some kind of audio equipment, it looks almost like a giant recording studio lol... basically a room where there'd be 0 echo whatsoever

 

You know very well. Are you an iNARTE engineer? At 0:17 we can find the same spikes.

 

Very cool! I actually have a collection of these books. DM sent for more info

 

No, but I know a lot about a lot of things. The LS400 is just another bucket I familiarize myself with and have a reasonable surface knowledge of.

I did a quick google to make sure I had my terminology correct and that's all. I've seen lots of videos on chambers like that before so I knew what it was instantly.

 

pretty cool!
put it on ebay, but i'm sure someone here is willing to buy it for a nice coffee table book!

 

Yeah, it's an anechoic chamber. It's an acoustic room that's used to absorb reflections or echoes of sound & EM (Electromagnetic) signals. The word an-echoic means non-reflective or without echoes & the material that's used to cover the inside walls, ceiling is made out of polyurethane foam & it acts as absorber material. The chamber is also used as a screen room to shield outside unwanted signals from interference & also prevent signals of interest from leaking out when testing sensitive RF (Radio Frequency) transceivers (transmitters/receivers). We frequently use these chambers to test our commercial & especially, gov't satellites.