Lexus to Debut a New F Performance Model in Detroit

New Lexus F Performance Vehicle (Credit: © Lexus)

The 2015 Detroit Auto Show is shaping up to be an exciting event, and Lexus has just upped the excitement a little more with its latest announcement. The Japanese luxury automaker has released that it will debut a new addition to the F performance lineup at the show. With this announcement came two teaser images to help put together the pieces and figure out what model I am looking at.

By the looks of the teaser images and comparing them to spy shots that I’ve seen in the past year,  I think it’s safe to assume that this is the long-anticipated GS F. Initial spy shots showed a GS Sedan test mule tinkering around the Nϋrburgring, while later ones showed a test mule cruising around town with the larger Lexus spindle grille and large air vents on the lower bumper. The only differences that I can make out between the teaser images and the latter spy shots are the headlights and the front fenders. Whereas the spy shots showed the GS F cruising around with the current headlights and standard fenders, these teasers show a sleeker set of lights with the signature checkmark LED driving lights beneath them and flared front fenders.

New Lexus F Performance Vehicle (Credit: © Lexus)

Explaining these differences is actually fairly simple. The GS stands out like a sore thumb in the current Lexus lineup, so odds are that it is set for a refresh to bring it up to speed with the IS and RC. This refresh will likely include thinner and sportier headlights and the new, larger spindle grille. About those wider fenders, well, those are easily swapped out at the factory, and it’s not surprising that Lexus left them off while testing to avoid drawing too much attention.

Now that it’s nearly 100-percent certain that this is the rumored GS F, what can we expect from this performance sedan? Chances are the GS F will borrow the 5.0-liter V-8 from the RC F Coupe, which will inject at least 467 horses and 389 pound-feet of torque into the sporty four-door. While that power sounds adequate on its own, when compared to the GS F’s main competition, the M5 and E63 AMG, it sounds sorely underpowered. The M5 puts down a mighty 560 horses and the E63 AMG lays down 550 ponies, dwarfing the Lexus 5.0-liter engine’s 467 horses . With that in mind, I cannot help but wonder if Lexus will move to turbo power to keep pace with its German rivals. If not, the GS F will be a tough sell against the offerings from Bimmer and Mercedes, unless the GS F is significantly cheaper than the hot German sedans.

We’ll learn all of the details once this new F performance model debuts in Detroit.