In Toyota legend, the LS 400 was built by a crew of 1,400 engineers, 2,300 technicians and 60 designers (more engineer designers than the slate of new trucks). They studied 450 prototypes, and it took half a decade to bring the first Lexus to market, and it cost $1 billion.
Plus, their big goal was to surpass the Mercedes-Benz S-Class – which was at least Car and Driver thought they had achievedA great round-up that pits the LS 400 against the mighty 420SEL and BMW 735i. But before we go any further, let’s step back and define the goals of Toyota’s LS400 F1 project. F1 was not shorthand for Formula 1. The project was originally named “Circle F”, with the word F standing for “flagship”, which Toyota, maker of the Cresidas and Corolla, was trying to establish. Lexus’s own official history on the matter states that they sent a team of planners to California to study luxury buyers. Although Toyota created the Japanese-market Century, that product was too conservative for the global luxury audience.
What the researchers learned from the focus groups was that Americans did not prioritize performance equal to prestige. This makes the LS 400 all the more remarkable, as Toyota had to deliver not only a car that was engineered from Europe, but a car that was aspirational through perceived luxury.
the relentless pursuit of perfection
To highlight this aspiration, the advertising firm Saatchi & Saatchi came up with the tagline, “The Relentless Pursuit of Perfection.” A segment of their advertising campaign featured an LS 400 on rollers and a top speed of 145 mph. But the trick of the party was that he built a pyramid of champagne glasses on the hood – filled to the brim with bubbles – and not a drop of champagne spilled.
This might have been impossible if Lexus weren’t truly relentless, but they were. During prototyping, engineers detected a noise in the drivetrain that was eventually discovered to be caused by a harmonic in the driveshaft. This noise became more audible at highway speeds. It’s true that Lexus didn’t just swap out a part. He completely rebuilt the drivetrain from superior, high-tensile steel.
To reinforce that high-quality mentality, Lexus took the thing that’s still frustrating for automakers today – a recall – and turned it into brilliant marketing. This recall was made for faulty tail lights. Instead of bringing customers to dealers for repairs, they sent technicians to customers’ homes, brought the cars, fixed them, washed them, and brought them back. A time magazine The 1990 story also highlights how a Detroit-based dealer flew a team of repair experts 150 miles away to Grand Rapids to repair just 10 customer vehicles.
show and posh
Yet Lexus also knew they could not compete with German rivals if they did not offer a V8 engine, which was not available on any contemporary Toyota sold in the U.S. They targeted the LS for a top speed of 155 mph, while still getting 10.5 liters per 100 kilometers – that’s 22.4 mpg.
They achieved the latter highway MPG by making the LS 400 incredibly slippery for the time, with a remarkable drag coefficient (Cd) of only 0.29, which is solid even for cars built today. For example, the 2026 Toyota Prius has 0.27 Cd. That sleek aerodynamic shape along with light curb weight meant the LS 400 would avoid America’s gas guzzler tax.
And, oh, Lexus didn’t make any V8s. They created an incredibly durable, four-liter quad-cam aluminum V8 that produced 241 horsepower. Not that Lexus lags behind in performance or quality. They built 973 prototypes of that engine and drove them 2.7 million miles in test cars.
A fundamental element of Lexus’ DNA goes back to that original research, which found that Americans prioritized prestige at least as much as performance. This led to the idea that comfort and performance should co-exist. And besides, the speed of the Lexus should be comfortable. Fast, efficient and exceptionally quiet with a heated interior. Lexus is now a segment titan, but we forget that they achieved this success by re-establishing a luxury market alongside Acura – which at the time seemed to be limited entirely to European brands.
