2024 Lexus RC F Track Edition Review: Extroverted, Aging, and Outclassed

By volume, nearly every automaker today is predominantly a truck or SUV manufacturer. The coupes and sedans that once ran the show at almost every marque make up smaller slices of the sales pie each year. Calling a track-oriented performance coupe a “fringe offering” for a brand like Lexus is, thus, a gross understatement.

We can rationalize the existence of the RC F Track Edition from two different vantage points. One: The company took a rare opportunity to chase the extremes, to try something measured more by capability or engagement than sales volume. And two: Faced with an aging nameplate, the product planning team injected the model with juice that it hoped would reignite interest in RC models across the board. The answer is probably a bit of both, but the end result—especially this late in the model’s lifecycle—leaves something to be desired.

The Lexus RC debuted in 2013 at the Tokyo Motor Show with the goal of taking the fight to German models like the BMW 4 Series, Audi A5, and the Mercedes C-Class coupe that had long dominated the segment. Trouble is, it never evolved much after that.

The RC’s best sales year was in 2015, when nearly 15,000 examples found new owners. In the last five years, it hasn’t broken the 5000-unit mark. The car has soldiered on with little change beyond a 2018 facelift. Lower-rung examples currently employ a 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder for motive power, while mid-rung examples upgrade to a version of Toyota’s workhorse 3.5-liter V-6.

These days, calling the RC an aging thing might be putting it mildly; the car utilizes the Toyota New N platform, which was first introduced in 2003. In 2018, the N platform was discontinued for future models in favor of the TNGA-L architecture, which we see today on models like the Lexus LS 500 and the LC 500.

To create some aspirational energy, Lexus revealed the RC F in 2014. While the lower- and mid-tier cars won’t turn any heads, the RC F makes raucous noise from its all-aluminum, free-breathing V-8, displacing 5.0 liters and producing 472 horsepower. Today, that V-8 is the only such engine left in its class, paired with an Aisin-sourced eight-speed automatic. Adjacent running gear is similarly upgraded: steel Brembo brakes, high-performance suspension, a better rear diff—the usual kit you’d expect on a sporting trim.

In 2019, Lexus unveiled the RC F Track Edition at the then-named North American International Auto Show. In addition to the RC F’s more aggressive styling, the Track Edition added a carbon fiber hood, fixed rear wing, a titanium exhaust, ceramic Brembos, along with a host of other go-fast bits. This was the RC F in its final form, shorn of 176 pounds of heft and aimed at lap times, as the name not-so-slyly hinted.

Specs: 2024 Lexus RC F Track Edition

• Price: $101,170 / $105,555 (Base/As-Tested)
• Powertrain: 5.0-liter naturally aspirated V-8, eight-speed automatic with paddle shifters
• Horsepower: 472 hp @ 7100 rpm
• Torque: 395 lb-ft @ 4800-5600 rpm
• 0-60 mph: 4.0 seconds
• Top Speed: 168 mph
• Drivetrain: Rear-wheel-drive with Torsen limited-slip differential
• Layout: Front-engine, two-door, 4-passenger sports coupe
• EPA-estimated fuel economy (city/highway/combined): 16/24/19 mpg
• Competitors: BMW M4, Mercedes-AMG C 63, Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing

I met this tip-of-the-spear car in North Carolina over the summer at a Lexus-hosted event that offered seat time in many models, including the new RX and the gorgeous LC 500. After a few hours behind its Alcantara steering wheel, a few things about the RC F Track Edition became apparent.

Let’s start with this: At $105,555 as-tested, this is an expensive car—the non-Track Edition RC F starts just shy of $70,000. Your extra 30-large gets you the slew of carbon fiber and handling upgrades mentioned above, plus a street presence that’s particularly overt for a company famous for understated luxury.

For almost two decades now, Lexus has sought to imbue certain vehicles in its lineup with more serious sporting intentions. The IS F was first, bowing at the 2007 North American International Auto Show. Then came the RC F in 2014, followed by the GS F in 2015. The RC F Track Edition is by far the company’s most eager attempt into this space yet, all wing and angles and “go fast standing still” looks.

However, the driving experience remains oddly divorced from its stated intent. It’s not that there isn’t theater here; on the contrary, there might be too much theater at times. The engine remains an absolute superstar—you’ll wind it out just to hear that thing sing. Every throttle application is a sense of occasion, deserving of celebration.

At least until the gearbox gets involved. Left in automatic mode, the Aisin eight-speed automatic tossed my head about with needlessly aggressive downshifts. Rolling up to a stoplight was downright infuriating, especially because these neck-wrecking shifts seemed to happen at random. Manual shifts didn’t fix the problem; instead, the transition from gear to gear felt even more delayed and snappy than the ones that plague the gearbox in automatic mode

Things get marginally better if you begin to play rough with the car, hucking all 3700-and-change lbs through corners. Shifts are still harsh up and down the range, but when they’re baked into a more aggressive casserole of inputs, the whole system jives better. It feels as though the engineers thought every trip had to feel like a qualifying lap; that’s never the case in real life.

Setting aside driving dynamics and looking at our surroundings, the interior feels dated. It’s clearly an older cabin layout, from the odd touch-slide climate controls to the infuriating trackpad infotainment interface. Buttons abound, which is always a plus in modern cars, but stepping from this into something that’s benefitted from update dollars such as an RX 450 or an LX 600 will throw into stark contrast just how far Lexus’ interiors have come.

The German competitors have carved out what we expect from this space: A heap of sportiness at the snap of a finger mixed with a competent, pleasurable on-road experience in the times between. There has always been a spot for Japanese and American contenders, though, and many, like Infiniti’s G35 and 37 and Cadillac’s V-Series, have found success over the years. The trick has been to offer some attribute, no matter how subtle, that sets it apart from the benchmark.

The BMW M4 has long been the measuring stick for this class. If you think of the base BMW M4 as essentially what the non-Track RC F was gunning for, then the RC F Track is akin to something like BMW’s limited-run M4 CS.

On the lower cars, the RC F and the M4 make similar power (472 hp for the Lexus vs. 473 for the Bimmer), and we’ll even give the better engine award to the Lexus because that V-8 is truly a one-of-a-kind mill in this segment. However, the M4 is a far better experience to live with daily, and that helps the fancier M4 CS stand out when things get gnarlier.

In the RC F Track, Lexus had to find an appealing differentiation from the M4 CS. What resulted was an effort to take a car that was already behind on day-to-day livability and juice it with track weaponry, only to look up and realize that the RC F Track was now massively down on power (the M4 CS makes 543 hp while the Lexus still makes just 472) and even tougher to live with as a daily driver. Sure, the M4 CS costs nearly $20,000 more than the RC F Track, but you’re getting an experience that feels at least that much better.

Ultimately, asking even brand loyalists to fork over this amount of cash for something on an aging platform that offers an inferior driving experience to the competitors is a hard sell. Through the third quarter of this year, just 1314 RCs have been sold; it’s hard to imagine more than a handful of those being RC F Tracks. The car unfortunately misses the mark as an aspirational halo, and doesn’t provide the engagement or pleasure its niche audience tends to demand.

But the hardest hurdle for the RC F Track Edition to clear resides elsewhere in the Lexus lineup. The LC 500 offers all of the exhilaration of that free-breathing V-8 paired with a 10-speed transmission that’s night-and-day better, a more resolute exterior package, and a markedly nicer interior. That car feels less geared toward a racetrack and more toward grand touring, where it doesn’t matter if your engine is down on power relative to the benchmarks.

The trump card to it all, though, is that the LC 500 and the RC F Track ring the register for nearly identical amounts. Both start just north of $100K, and properly optioned, both will land just shy of $110K. If you want a convertible version of the LC 500 (and trust me, you do), even that settles around the $115K mark.

No matter where you turn, the Lexus RC F Track Edition faces an uphill battle it’s probably not ready for in its old age. Lexus announced that 2024 would be the final year for the Track Edition, and although there’s no word yet on the future of the RC model as a whole, I don’t think that the brand will lose some pillar of its reputation once this one hits the big parking lot in the sky. Though there’s a certain charm to something from a bygone era, the virtues of the modern Lexus brand outweigh the nostalgic proposition here.

2024 Lexus RC F Track Edition

Highs: Operatic engine, extroverted styling that will send the youths running towards your car in droves.

Lows: Infuriating all-or-nothing automatic transmission, an interior that feels dated relative to both the competition and other Lexus products.

Summary: There is a $100K Lexus coupe worth every dime of its price tag, but it’s not this one.