Nothing better highlights the paradox that is Lexus than its recent YouTube uploads. On the UK channel in the past couple of weeks we have 'Lexus Creates: Culinary Perspectives', 'Lexus ES: How to fill with fuel' and 'Lexus NX: How to set your Lexus Safety System +' alongside this latest video: 'New 1,200bhp 2JZ-powered Lexus RC F Carbon Kevlar drift car revealed'. No supporting video on how to put fuel in it, though.
And while associating modern Lexus with skidding as a sport might seem odd, there is some history. You only need look at a few Ebisu vids to watch an old GS or IS project car pop up at some outrageous angle, and Lexus itself has even prepared drift cars for SEMA in the past. In fact, it's even gone to the effort of making made a dedicated vehicle for the sport with Red Bull and its UAE distributor, dropping a supercharged V8 into one last year to make the world's first RC F drift car.
But now it's gone one step further. Because if you're making a drift car from something in the Toyota empire, what engine do you need? A 2JZ, exactly. It has to be. The old lump hasn't been in a production car for nearly 20 years, but it's returned to again and again for very good reason: it's immensely tough, able to withstand the sort of enormous power outputs required for drifting. Probably helps that it sounds utterly wild, too.
So that's what Lexus and the same partners have done this time around, supercharged V8 swapped for twin-turbo 2JZ for another 350hp, up to 1,200hp from 850hp. Because why not, right? In addition, it's now carbon Kevlar bodied, to save weight, and is billed as "the most powerful and advanced Lexus drift car on the planet." Which probably isn't an enormous group of cars, let's be honest - but an accolade is an accolade nonetheless.
Certainly the RC F looks eminently skiddable at the hands of Ahmad Daham, driving here and making the process of lighting up 1,200hp look incredibly easy. But also very watchable, just the thing to jolt your morning into action with a caffeine hit as well. And to think the standard RC F is always harder to drift than you might assume it would be...