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 On the eve of the Manhattan event, Lexus rolled its new hero car into the spotlight with the promise of a new design direction for the brand.
The LF-Gh hybrid concept previews the look of the upcoming mid-sized GS but, more importantly, signals an all-new design direction for the brand. The 21st century signature item of every major brand - the 'face' - has been changed to a super-aggressive look built around a blacked-out 'spindle' shape in the nose.
Lexus has already used a watered-down spindle on the front of the CT200h which has just arrived in Australia, but the new look is intended to be much more aggressive and flows into everything from a more-elegant overall shape to a BMW-style kick around the rear side glass and a slashed-out tail lamp treatment.
The LF-Gh - no-one at the New York preview calls it a GS - is slightly longer and wider than the car it will replace and is likely to spark another F-branded performance push similar to the work already done with the compact IS-F.
It comes from a brand which was created for the USA in the late 1980s and its name is sometimes known - incorrectly - as a contraction of Luxury Export to the USA.
"The captivating design of the LF-Gh concept examines the possibility of balancing what are normally opposing qualities, such as style and functionality," he says. For Australia, the LF is likely to morph into a GS sometime in 2010.
"It's pretty representative of the design direction for Lexus. The guys aren't saying it's definitely a GS yet," says Peter Evans of Lexus Australia, in Manhattan for the unveiling. "It's the next iteration of the design language, the next development of L Finesse at Lexus."
The New York show car is very close to production ready, although its 20-inch wheels and rear-view cameras are unlikely to survive to showrooms. It even has a complete interior with production-style dashboard, although the car's windows are blacked-out to prevent anything beyond a sneak peak.
