First Look: Is This the Next Lexus LC? We Think So, but It Could Be a New LFA(!)
Lexus has revealed its Sport Concept at Monterey Car Week, and it’s shaping up to be part of something special.
Jonny LiebermanWriterAug 15, 2025
Lexus Sport Concept 2
Live from Monterey Car Week, Lexus just pulled the covers off something called the Sport Concept during the 2025 edition of The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering. We expected it would be the production version of the camouflaged car we’ve seen recently running around on California roads and flying up the hill of the Goodwood Festival of Speed. But it’s not. This is something different. Which leads us to the following conclusion: Toyota is going to build three new high-performance coupes, not two. One is an endurance race car that will compete in the GT3 class; the second is a sports car/supercar that will compete with vehicles like the AMG GT and Porsche 911 GT3; and the third is what Lexus revealed today. The latter looks to be a high-design, luxury coupe, most likely a replacement for the much loved but slow-selling LC coupe. The two-sentence press release about the car refers to it as the Lexus Sport Concept.
Lexus Sport concept art 1
How Did We Get Here?
With almost no fanfare and even less explanation, Toyota brought two camouflaged cars to this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed. One was quite obviously a race car and was billed only as the Toyota GT Racing Concept. The other was a road car called the Toyota GT Concept. We’ve also seen the latter testing up in the mountains above Los Angeles with a previous-generation AMG GT-R along for good measure. We originally figured it was a Lexus because anything competing with cars like the AMG GT-R will be priced in the $200,000 neighborhood, a price point that screams Lexus much more than it does Toyota.
But that was before we saw the Sport Concept today on the Lexus stand at The Quail. This car has Lexus design cues and is identified as a Lexus. The GT Concept looks like a big Toyota GR, especially from the front, and was billed as a Toyota, at least in Goodwood. As we’ve seen during the last few years, any sporting Toyota product will get a GR badge stuck onto it. So will it be the Toyota GR-GT? GR Coupe? GT Coupe? Expect the name to be something along those lines. As for what will be under the long hood, we’ve repeatedly heard the powertrain will be an electrified twin-turbo V-8.
Lexus Sport Concept 3
A $200,000 Toyota?
Americans don’t tend to grasp stealth wealth. The totally excellent Volkswagen Phaeton luxury sedan belly flopped in the U.S., lasting just three years, while it enjoyed a 13-year lifespan in Europe. Speaking of Europe, it’s common for people there to debadge fancy cars. No one needs to know you’re driving an AMG SL63. Hey, it could be an SL43. Here in the U.S., people order M badges off eBay to stick onto their 328s.
All that said, the Chevrolet Corvette ZR1X hybrid will start at a cool $207,395, but it does make 1,250 horsepower. But two bills for not a Lexus, but a Toyota? Rumors have swirled for a while now that Toyota wants Gazoo Racing, i.e. GR, to exist as a standalone brand. We think a $200,000 halo supercar is a great way to launch a brand. Instead of the Toyota GT Concept, it would be the GR GT Concept. Thinking about it, we’ve heard worse names than GR GT. Like ZR1X.
Lexus Sport Concept 1
And the Race Car?
We know that Akio Toyoda, Toyota’s CEO, loves racing, loves endurance racing, and loves the Nürburgring. Meaning we can’t see it as being anything other than a GT3 racer, one that could compete in races like 24 Hours of Le Mans, the Rolex 24 at Daytona, and the Nürburgring 24 Hours. It’s easy to guess the powertrain would be a de-hybridized version of the GT Concept’s twin-turbo V-8.
So What’s This Quail Lexus?
We’re not entirely sure. A replacement for the LC is indeed a solid guess, though we should point out the LC is built in the Motomachi factory that used to build the LFA supercar. This car could be either an LC or an LFA at this point, though we think an LC is slightly more likely. We simply don’t know, however. After shaking our sources, all we’re getting is that the Lexus Sports Concept was a pure EV at one point, but now it will have an “electrified powertrain.” Might it be the same as the GT/GR Concept? Totally possible. We’ll guess the Toyota GR product will be more of a performance hybrid, whereas the more luxurious Lexus Sport Concept will be a plug-in hybrid. We’ll also guess the Lexus version will produce more power. Again, though, we’re just speculating. Toyota and Lexus have confirmed nothing, but one source did mention all will be revealed by the end of 2025. All three should reach production by early 2027.
Jonny Lieberman
When I was just one-year-old and newly walking, I managed to paint a white racing stripe down the side of my father’s Datsun 280Z. It’s been downhill ever since then. Moral of the story? Painting the garage leads to petrolheads. I’ve always loved writing, and I’ve always had strong opinions about cars.
One day I realized that I should combine two of my biggest passions and see what happened. Turns out that some people liked what I had to say and within a few years Angus MacKenzie came calling. I regularly come to the realization that I have the best job in the entire world. My father is the one most responsible for my car obsession. While driving, he would never fail to regale me with tales of my grandfather’s 1950 Cadillac 60 Special and 1953 Buick Roadmaster. He’d also try to impart driving wisdom, explaining how the younger you learn to drive, the safer driver you’ll be. “I learned to drive when I was 12 and I’ve never been in an accident.” He also, at least once per month warned, “No matter how good you drive, someday, somewhere, a drunk’s going to come out of nowhere and plow into you.”
When I was very young my dad would strap my car seat into the front of his Datsun 280Z and we’d go flying around the hills above Malibu, near where I grew up. The same roads, in fact, that we now use for the majority of our comparison tests. I believe these weekend runs are part of the reason why I’ve never developed motion sickness, a trait that comes in handy when my “job” requires me to sit in the passenger seats for repeated hot laps of the Nurburgring. Outside of cars and writing, my great passions include beer — brewing and judging as well as tasting — and tournament poker. I also like collecting cactus, because they’re tough to kill. My amazing wife Amy is an actress here in Los Angeles and we have a wonderful son, Richard.
