Test drive Lexus LS 2006 - 2009 sedan

Anticipate desires

The new Lexus-LS 460 not only fulfills the most daring desires, but also predicts them.
Lexus LS 460
The fourth -generation sedan debuted in January 2006 in Detroit, in August the European premiere was held at the Moscow Motor Show. Released in Tahara (Japan). Version L with an increased 120 mm base is provided.
Engine: gasoline V8, 4.6 l (380 hp); Hybrid modification LS 600H with the same gasoline engine and electric motor.
Gearbox: automatic
8-speed.
Price: $ 112 700150 100.
Test car: 4.6 liters, 380 hp, standard equipment with additional equipment, $ 130,700.

Eh, not there, not there I drive 380 horses! They would be in the left lane of an unlimited German autobahn, and here you will please crawl along the spa curses in the offseason. Rare passers -in with delicate interest glances at the huge sedan of the color of the night blue, silently gliding among the unpretentious mass hatchbacks.

By the way, to reduce the noise of the gear, laser polishing is subjected to, and the mandatory check of the transmission at the stand should fix the sound level not higher than 10 dBA! For comparison, the clock is ticking 30 dBA.
So-so ... Wow, they fit! When you sit in a car with a width of almost 1.9 m and more than five -width, and already narrow streets seem to still narrow.
But the turning radius of 5.4 m with an almost three -meter base is perhaps a record in the classroom. In addition, the creators of Lexus-LS 460 (ZR, 2006, No. 9) provided the driver with quick assistants. For example, at low speeds, the steering wheel with an electric amplifier (by the way, works from the 46 V converter) becomes lighter and makes only 2.5 turns from the stop to the stop, against the maximum 3.6. Parctronics around the perimeter or video camera showing the stern trajectory today will not be surprised by few today. But this car also twists its own steering, parking in the interval between others! At first, this causes a ramp and distrust. Well, how will it miss? No, it gets exactly, do not forget only to press the brake pedal.

That's the only place where the accelerator can be pressed to the floor behind the turnstile at the beginning of the highway Roting thoroughbred and in goodwill, Lexus gently underlying the loudly gone to the body with thin beige leather of the chair. Is there a gearbox here, actually? It seems that there is no first eight -speed automatic in the world so imperceptibly does its job that you forget about it. The arrow of the tachometer is just a little swaying, but there are no jerks, the overload is powerful and even, as in a take -off airplane. The first hundred car, without visible voltage, exchanges in just 5.7 s. Manually click the machine gun selector? Please, if the owner of Lexus is prone to the boy.

The motor here is unusual: the V-shaped eight for the first time in the world is equipped with combined fuel injection. At idle and maximum loads, gasoline is supplied directly to the cylinders, and nozzles in the intake manifold are additionally connected in transition modes. This allows you to remove 82.5 hp from each of the 4.6 liters of working volume, increase the torque by 7.5%, reduce toxicity and maintain the average fuel consumption of a huge powerful car at a mark of 11.1 l/100 km! True, the flow meter recorded about 15 liters, but in the mountains and towns.

Polished surfaces of friction pairs and even oil channels in the crankshaft (through them, a special liquid with an abrasive is pumped through them!) This is an opportunity to achieve the lowest internal losses among similar units. The first electric gas distribution phase drive in the world, it works in a widest speed range and temperatures than traditional hydraulic.

Do you know how the distributions do? Cool the pipe-lane with liquid nitrogen, it is slightly clenched, the fists are strung on it, the part heats up and the camshaft is ready!
However, the client is more important not how the kitchen works, but what is served on the table. The Lexus menu has the highest comfort. Moreover, one of the components of the philosophy of the machine is an inconspicuous anticipation of desires.

Have you got into a car from a frosty street? Six infrared sensors will instantly estimate the temperature of your body and supply heated air to warm you quickly. You are not enough ordinary, built -in in a chair, massage and ventilation devices?

Order a 120 mm version of the venue for a 120 mm ottoman for the rear sofa there will be a pneumatic system that can make a professional massage Shiatsu, a retractable boss foot and 45 backs back.
Automatic adaptation of the stiffness of each of the four shock absorbers, a four-zone climate control, a two-chamber airbag is all complex, sometimes it is difficult to list revolutionary devices in Lexus-LS 460.
All this splendor is already offered in Russia. The standard version costs $ 112 700 130 700, elongated $ 120 300 150 100. The suspension was not required, but the machine was prepared for a cold climate, guaranteeing the launch of up to -35s. In 2007, they plan to sell about a thousand cars. They say that 70% of them will have to be for a long-drawn top version of black color. I think the plans are fulfilled.

Lexus LS 460 The focus of the latest technologies and complex engineering solutions. From this, it is natural to transfer to a yacht or plane.
+ Excellent comfort, low noise level, richest equipment, high level of safety, excellent dynamics, excellent manufacturing quality, competitive price.
- lack of choice of power units and options for configuration.

For the same money
Mercedes-Benz S450
Є95 000 ($ 126,000)
For the price, the S450 modification (340 hp) is closest, but the S500 (388 hp) is similar in power and dynamics from $ 140,000. At the same time, the basic configurations of the Mercedes are more modest.
BMW 750i
Є99 400 ($ 132,000)
The nearest analogue of Lexus model 750i (367 hp). Like Mercedes, some luxury items lose in the level of standard equipment only in the option list.



 
 
Yuri Nechetov
 

Source: The magazine "Driving"