Mark Templin joined Toyota in 1990, one year after the LS400 launched the Lexus brand. Now a top executive at Lexus, Templin is there to bring to life CEO Akio Toyoda’s vision: injecting passion and performance into a lineup best known for its suppleness and serenity.
Car and Driver: What distinguishes F from established players like BMW M and Mercedes-AMG?
Mark Templin: For us, it’s about making a car that makes everybody a better driver. It’s not just about hard-core performance. It’s not just about getting on a racetrack and being the fastest.
C/D: What does the focus on performance mean for the customers who buy Lexus cars for comfort and luxury?
MT: We’re trying to provide them the best of both worlds. We want a car that’s 99.9 percent as good as any other car on the track, but is way better than everybody else on the street. Historically, we were about the best-quality product, bar none. Nobody could touch our quality, nobody could touch our quiet and our ride comfort, nobody could touch our customer experience or our craftsmanship. Those things we own, and we have to keep them. Now we want to add all of these emotional elements: styling, driving dynamics, and high performance, with F products. We’re trying to add those—not change the brand—but add those to the brand.
C/D: Why don’t you use turbochargers on the F cars?
MT: [F program chief engineer Yukihiko] Yaguchi is a big fan of naturally aspirated engines because of the visceral effect that you get, the sound of it, and the way that it feels. That being said, it doesn’t mean we’ll never have a turbocharged F product, but if we do, it will probably be a big engine that still gives you all of those attributes that he wants. He really feels that it’s important to have the sound quality that you get out of those big engines.
C/D: What did Lexus learn from the $375,875 LFA?
MT: When we started, we wanted a good performance coupe at an affordable price that our customers could move up into. As development went through its cycles, everything got better and bigger and more expensive. Some of us started to wonder, “Wow, is that the right thing to do?” After the fact, it was the best thing we ever did because it engaged our engineers, and what they learned is making every other car we build better.
- Lexus RC F GT3: The Race-Ready Lexus Coupe
- Comparison Test: 2011 Ferrari 599 HGTE vs. 2012 Lexus LFA
- 2015 Lexus RC F Tested: Looks Like Gundam, Moves Like Rerun
C/D: You’ve announced your intention to launch a global racing effort with the RC F GT3 this year. Why is it important to go racing?
MT: Because it’s fun. It’s like the LFA. By building the GT3 car and going to race with that car, we’re going to learn things that will make all of our products better.
from Car and Driver Blog http://ift.tt/1bbN0Bq
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