Lexus has let some of America’s top custom car specialists loose on its hybrid models to mark its return this week to the 2010 SEMA auto trade show in Las Vegas. The result is a jaw-dropping display of giant rims, flared wheelarches, dazzling paintwork and outrageous body kits, plus high-performance axles, suspension systems and brakes.
Lexus has worked its own magic on the CT 200h, creating an F Sport Concept version of its soon-to-be-launched full hybrid luxury hatchback, fitting it out with 18 x 8-inch alloys with Pirelli PZero Nero 225/40R/18 tyres, adjustable suspension and shocks and a high-performance Big Brake Kit, with mighty 12.9 x 11-inch cross-drilled front discs. It may be a show concept, but it demonstrates just what an F Sport version of CT 200h might deliver.
0-60 Magazine has taken the GS 450h sports saloon and added a raft of performance and handling upgrades to increase the car’s fun factor on road and track. The Custom Carbon five-piece body kit includes an outrageous rear wing, while the hot hybrid also gains a GReddy performance titanium racing exhaust, racing dampers and springs from TEIN USA, Brembo Gran Turismo brakes and forged racing wheels from Rays Engineering.
Fox Marketing’s Lexus LS 600h L is SEMA’s “greenest” limousine by far, with its special Glacier Green and Satin Black paintwork. The bold colour scheme is matched by a full Artisan Spirit body kit with skirts, smoked tail-lights, twin rear wings and a front light bar. The car rides on Rotiform concave 20-inch BLQ wheels with a “candy copper” finish and it hugs the ground thanks to an adjustable ride height system. Modified Lexus/SSBC brakes are fitted – 14-inch front discs with four-piston callipers and 13.2-inch discs at the rear, and as a finishing touch, the Lexus emblems have a satin black finish.
VIP Auto Saloon’s take on the LS is lean, low and luxurious, with a customized interior (created together with Top Stitch), 21-inch WALD Mahora M11c polished machined black wheels and customized air suspension with a JoeZ Series rear axle system from Performance Tube Systems. Fifteen-inch Brembo discs with six-piston monoblock calipers are fitted and the car is turned out in a metallic bronze PPG paint finish.
The RX 450h – Lexus’s top selling North American model – has been transformed by Paul Tolson of EST Styling with a clean and mean new look, using a Hired Gun Paint Werks wide-body conversion kit. Add Leon Hardiritt 21-inch rims – -4 offset at the front and +9 offset at the rear – and an integrated Air Runner suspension system and you have a formidable full hybrid street machine like no other.
