2012 Lexus on 2040-cars

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Lexus fans vote Solar Flare for new RC F hue

What's in a name? When it comes to model nameplates, quite a lot, and automakers go to considerable lengths to find just the right one. Same goes for the names of the colors in the catalog (save for maybe the Rape Yellow in the extensive Bugatti palette), but every once in a while, an automaker will open it up for suggestions from the public.
SRT did that when it introduced a new shade of blue for its Viper, as did Chevy for the pale green on the Volt. And last month, Lexus followed a similar path when it asked fans on Facebook to come up with a name for the new shade of orange for the RC F.
Fans suggested names like Tangerine Flame, Outrageous Orange and Fiery Orange, but ultimately the winning submission that Lexus selected was Solar Flare. The name was suggested by five individuals and will now enter the catalog of colors for the new luxury muscle coupe with its 450-horsepower 5.0-liter V8.

Watch an Aventador, Viper and LFA play the songs of their people

Our friends at Road & Track recently stopped by Cars and Coffee in Irvine, California, with the 2013 SRT Viper and found themselves a place to park between a Lamborghini Aventador and a Lexus LFA. Those machines might as well be the three musketeers of ludicrous exhaust notes, and rather than keep those 24 raging cylinders muffled, R&T set about conducting an orchestra of internal combustion. On seeing these three lined up, we were more than prepared to call the Viper victorious when it came to tickling our ear drums, but the latest domestic V10 sounds down right civilized in this company.
If we're picking favorites, we have to say the LFA takes the cake. There's something about the noise of a street-legal V10 that can wrap it's tachometer all the way to 9,000 rpm that turns our knees to quivering dollops of jelly. Check out the clip below for a listen. We shouldn't need to tell you to get frisky with the volume.

Lexus launching new Crafted Line special editions at Pebble Beach

Over the course of the past 25 years, Lexus has done one heck of a job winding its way into the luxury automobile market previously dominated by the Germans. And now it aims to take another step into the luxury arena with The Crafted Line by Lexus.
Set to debut at Pebble Beach later this month, the Crafted line offers the Storm Trooper treatment with high-contrast white paint and black trim. The interiors are done up in two-tone black and red, and Tumi has done up a special set of luggage to match.
The special edition will be available on the ES350 as well as the F Sport versions of the LS460, GS350, IS250 (in both rear- and all-wheel drive) and RX350 AWD. Each will be limited to around 1,000 examples (give or take, depending on the model), with pricing set to start at around $42,000 for the ES pictured above. Scope out the full details in the press release below.