Four years ago, the Lexus LF-LC concept debuted at the Detroit auto show in front of a pleasantly surprised but very pleased crowd. Akio Toyoda took note of the reaction, turned to his Lexus team, and told them to bring the LF-LC to life. The design and engineering teams in Japan worked side-by-side and came up with this, the 2018 Lexus LC 500. The LC 500 has gotten a lot of deserved attention on the floor of the 2016 Detroit auto show, where we also learned a bit more about Lexus’ all-new coupe.

1. Exterior design dictated a brand-new front suspension. Early in development, Lexus engineers knew they would need to completely redesign the front suspension after the low-slung hood wouldn’t fit over the V-8 engine and the chassis couldn’t accommodate 21-inch wheels. Lexus built a multilink suspension from scratch that will be carried over to future models.

2. Its active exhaust caused a lot of dispute. Higher-ups at Lexus wanted the engine to “bark” at startup, like a Ford Mustang would, but many engineers in Japan felt like that would set the 2018 Lexus LC 500 too far afield from classic Lexus models. Chief engineer Koji Sato set the record straight, said they would fit the coupe with an active exhaust, and supposedly the LC 500 sounds like a serious, badass performance car.

3. The 10-speed automatic transmissions's torque converter is the most compact ever fitted to a Lexus driveline. A smaller torque converter means reduced mass, which means less parasitic loss.

4. Lexus benchmarked the BMW 6 Series, Jaguar F-type, Maserati GranTurismo, and Mercedes-Benz SL-Class. And guess what? All four have high-performance variants. Here to hoping we see a 2020 Lexus LC F.

5. Its battery is in the trunk. Engineers had to put it back there to help hit a 52/48 percent front-rear weight distribution.

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