It’s been a year or so since rumors began to swirl that Lexus was building an LC F - a high-performance take on the LC500 grand tourer. As it turns out, Lexus did actually build a turbocharged concept on the LC platform, but it never passed the evaluation stage, which means that while cars like the LC still have a future at Lexus, the LC F is never going to happen, at least not in the way we all expected it to anyway. There is a noticeable gap within Lexus’ performance lineup, namely the LFA and the IS, and what’s coming to fill that gap might be better than an LC F could have ever been.

The Deal Behind the LC F That Isn’t Happening

Rumors of an LC F – a car that would essentially sit at the top of the performance lineup with the LFA being discontinued for a decade now – have been well received. So well-received, in fact, that Lexus even built a design concept of sorts behind closed doors that was never pushed past the evaluation process. Rumors said it would be powered by a 4.0-liter, twin-turbo, V-8 that would have been good for somewhere around 660 horsepower. A new report from Road & Track has put an end to the rumors and given us a good reason why it wouldn’t happen. According to Lexus Motorsports Manage, Jeffery Bal, the LC is a grand tourer with a perfect 50-50 weight distribution, but that’s what it’s designed to be, so it apparently wasn’t a feasible move for the company to build an LC F.

The principal reason wasn’t actually disclosed, but it’s easy to assume that it either performance wouldn’t meet expectations due to the LC’s weight or the costs to develop a high-performance grand tourer we just too much. Perhaps it’s a combination of both, but either way, Lexus performance is heading in a different direction, and you might like it. The only catch is that it might not be an LC F, either.

Lexus has every intention of taking its next performance car GT3 racing, and Bal has once again confirmed that the Toyota GR GT3 concept is, at the very least, a hint at what we can expect. This is interesting because it was just back in February 2022 that Car & Driver broke the news that the next-gen RC and RC F would be built with GT3 racing in mind. This means that there won’t be an LC F but, more likely, something along the lines of a new RC F.

This isn’t to say that this will be a true successor to the LFA, though, either. Not that Lexus doesn’t have something like that in the works too. Just recently we learned that not only was Lexus working on an LFA successor, but that there will be two LFA successors – one electric and one fuel powered. Bal once again confirmed that Lexus needs a successor to the LFA, but also that there’s a big gap for new sports cars too.

Bal was asked whether or not Lexus intended to build something that could take on the Mercedes AMG GT, for example, with the idea that it would run parallel with the LC500, and he hinted that it was a possibility. “There is something closer to you described and it might fall into that as we study it closely, but we're not ready to announce anything yet." So, while we don’t know specifics yet, what we can say with near certainty is that Lexus surely isn’t going to give up on its performance lineup and, in fact, could have a larger performance lineup than ever.

This is even more true when you take into consideration Bal’s explanation that Lexus is also hoping to inject performance into other areas of its lineup as well. That doesn’t mean there will be a GS F, for example, but current cars in the lineup could see some extra performance. What all of this means for the next decade, especially with electrification in the air, is a bit of a mystery, but you should definitely keep an eye on Lexus because it’s gearing up to have an interesting future.