Lexus's bread-and-butter ES series would benefit from this pillared coupe, shown in hybrid form, the ES350/h. The front wheel drive platform could be shared with a new Solara if Toyota decides to update that 2 door version of the Camry.
The luxury marque's performance model, the IS/F could certainly turn a few heads with two fewer doors and two less pillars. Lexus could one-up the upcoming Mercedes C coupe, which in spy shots has shown it will be pillared.
These two chops were done in 2008, but still look pretty good to me, and the cars they're based on are still in production.
Did you see this on the Ferrari recall?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.automoblog.net/2010/09/02/supercar-recall-ferrari-458-italia-fire-fix/
Yes, I saw that. I'm not a fan of modern Ferraris to tell you the truth. I LOVE their cars of the '60s and early '70s, but after that they seem to have gone after the gold chain crowd to me.
ReplyDeletelol - well now their melted gold chains can be made into something more tasteful.
ReplyDeleteCasey,
ReplyDeleteCurrent Ferraris bear so little resemblance to real cars -- I'm not sure what the point of them is any more. The Ferraris of the late 50s, when I first became aware of them, were so beautiful, up through the Daytona. After that, they just leave me cold (perhaps they catch fire to warm people up!).
Annie,
I like the way you think! :-)
Paul, NYC
CAsey,
ReplyDeleteThose Lexus chops are terrific. I was just admiring a IS250 sedan that I saw on my way home last night. It would make a wonderful coupe as well as a soft-top convertible! The hardtop convertible is so compromised stylistically that it just looks weird. The only hardtop convertible that really hides what it's doing is the BMW 3 series. If not for the cutlines for the folding top, you would not be able to tell that it wasn't either a pilalrless coupe (top up) or a soft-top convertible (top down). Of course, it has no luggage space to speak of in either mode. The ES coupe is nice, too, but would look better pillarless.
Paul, NYC
I had a rare moment of 'production sense' when i kept the pillars on the ES350! I know Lexus sells boatloads of the ES models, but honestly I wish they didn't build a front wheel drive car!
ReplyDelete