2018 Lexus GS F at night

After taking a couple of vans to the 24 Hours of Lemons races I help organize, as well as a very green electric hatchback to some Lemons HQ strategy sessions, I decided my next East Bay trip to discuss race planning over burritos with my fellow Race Organizers would require a sensible-yet-slightly-devilish car. I’d enjoyed the masterpiece of a 5.0-liter Toyota V8 engine in the Lexus RC F, so I got the RC’s sedan cousin: the GS F.

Of course, the first thing I did with the GS F was to photograph it with an old Soviet film camera. Photo by Murilee Martin

Because I can’t do anything automotive these days without documenting the experience with an ancient film camera, the first thing I did with the GS F was to drive it to a wrecking yard near Monterey, buy the digital instrument cluster from a Mazda 929, ogle a discarded first-year Chrysler K-Car, and shoot a bunch of photos of the Lexus with an early-1950s MOCKBA-2 medium-format camera.

This photograph was taken with a pinhole camera made from a 2002 Toyota Camry side mirror. Photo by Murilee Martin

Documenting the Lexus with a 65-year-old Soviet clone of an 80-year-old German camera felt too mainstream, though, so I built a pinhole camera out of a Camry side mirror and used it to take some shots of the GS F that I found very pleasing.

This engine cover looks better than most. Photo by Murilee Martin

This car scales in at two tons, so even 467 naturally-aspirated V8 horses under the hood aren’t enough to make it crazy. Still, the exhaust note is gloriously evil-sounding, and in S+ mode you can get the rear end to kick out in proper dorifuto mode (which we’re guessing very few American GS owners will ever do). The engine goes into Atkinson Cycle mode when possible, so the car manages an impressive 24 miles per gallon on the highway. I need to find one of these engines for my 1997 LS 400, which needs an extra 200 hp immediately.

If you drive in urban California, you’ll see a lot more of this kind of driving than wide-open sunny roads. Photo by Murilee Martin

As is usually the case when I drive a high-performance car around the San Francisco Bay Area, I a great deal of my time poking along in traffic and almost no time exploring the limits of the car’s performance envelope. The GS F does a fine job of staying civilized in stop-and-go traffic, though the ride is a bit stiff over those deferred-maintenance California roads. The Mark Levinson audio system doesn’t provide the kind of bass I’d expect from a $1,380 option, but the sound quality is good enough otherwise.

For 2019, even the Lexus ES will be available with an F option. Photo by Murilee Martin

I had a couple of six-footers get in the back seat, and they reported that it was not cramped at all. Because it’s a Toyota, it will likely hold together until human-driven internal-combustion vehicles are made illegal. Overall, a substantial and well-made sedan that moves quickly but doesn’t make you pay much in discomfort or inconvenience for its big power and snazzy interior.

This color is called Ultrasonic Blue Mica. Photo by Murilee Martin

As is the case with most members of the Toyota/Lexus sedan family, this car has a certain Camry-ness about its appearance. That doesn’t bother me— if I had eighty grand to drop on a new sedan, this would be the one— but it’s something to be considered by those who want to eschew anything that smacks of sensible behavior.