2021 IS debuts new Lexus Driving Signature and now has LSS+ 2.5

MANILA: The renowned drive of the Lexus IS just got a lot better as the Japanese luxury carmaker introduces the 2021 model year that now comes with the new Lexus Driving Signature.

Developed under the watchful eye of Lexus International President Koji Sato and Chief Branding Officer Akio Toyoda, Lexus Driving Signature is about more balance, refinement, control, and confidence than ever before. This comes from their learnings and improvements of F brand cars and even from the LC, LS, LX.

“What we had foremost in mind in developing the new IS was to make it a car that excelled in communicating with the driver regardless of the road conditions or driving situation. We aimed to make the new IS a Lexus compact sports sedan that provides high-quality riding comfort while offering a high level of vehicle control,” said Lexus International Chief Engineer Naoki Kobayashi.

Key to the Lexus Driving Signature is enhancing body rigidity. The radiator side supports were reinforced, the number of front-side-member weld points increased, and the C-pillars to the sides of the roof were also strengthened. The overall effect was reduction of noise, vibration, and harshness, improved ride comfort and driving performance, plus enhanced response to steering input.

To reduce overall weight, engineers took a page from the LFA supercar. New to the 2021 IS are the use of hub bolts that take off two pounds of unsprung weight on the wheels. Hub bolts allow for improved fastening strength, increasing rigidity for better braking and handling. It also comes with new coil springs that are 20% lighter, new A-arms that use forged aluminum metal making them 18% lighter, and a new suspension stabilizer bar that weighs 17% less than the previous one.

Now that its lighter, the 2021 IS can now get the with new swing-valve shock absorbers equipped with ultralow-velocity valves in their pistons to manage oil flow in response to even minor road irregularities. What it does is even when the stroke speed of the shock absorbers is low, the new velocity valves apply appropriate damping force on different road surfaces. It also comes with new bound stoppers to help manage the sprung weight more effectively for enhanced ride comfort.

On the outside, the 2021 IS is slightly wider, with muscular fenders and for the first time comes with 19-inch wheels and larger-diameter tires. It has a newly designed spindle grille with a three-dimensional polyhedral structure that originates from the foremost tip of the grille. Headlamps have been restyled to be sleeker and come with daytime running lights with a sharp L-shape signature that runs across the lateral axis just above the newly developed compact and lightweight lamp units.

It boasts new rocker panels accent along the sides while the rear brings up a three-dimensional design on the deck created with a stamping technology called press-in mold construction.

Powering the 2021 IS is an updated 2.0-liter turbocharged and intercooled inline four-cylinder engine. It now features adaptive transmission control that helps determine the most appropriate gear for each driving situation based on driver input to achieve linear response. It sends 241hp and 350Nm of torque to an eight-speed Sport Direct Shift (SPDS) automatic transmission. It integrates an advanced G-force Artificial Intelligence (G-AI) system that monitors multiple performance parameters to determine the optimum gear selection.

If all that power isn’t enough, there’s the IS 350 in either rear-wheel drive or all-wheel drive powered by a 3.5-liter V6 that produces 311hp and 380Nm of peak torque. The rear-wheel drive model uses the same eight-speed Sport Direct Shift automatic transmission found in the IS 300 RWD, while the AWD version sends power through a six-speed automatic.

Standard on the 2021 Lexus IS is the new LSS+ 2.5 (Lexus Safety System). It comes with Pre-Collision System (PCS), which includes Frontal Collision Warning (FCW), Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB), Pedestrian Detection and Bicyclist Detection (features an enhancement to the single-lens camera and millimeter-wave radar elements to expand the response range and detect not only the vehicle ahead but also a preceding bicyclist in daytime and even a preceding pedestrian in daytime and low-light conditions). Additional PCS functions include Emergency Steering Assist (ESA), which is designed to assist steering within the vehicle’s lane as cued by the driver.

It also has Dynamic Radar Cruise Control (DRCC) that can be activated above 40kph and is designed to perform vehicle-to-vehicle distance controls down to 0kph and can resume from a stop. DRCC also includes a new feature that allows for smooth overtaking of slower vehicles. If traveling behind a vehicle slower than the preset speed, once the driver engages the turn signal the system will provide an initial increase in acceleration in preparation for changing lanes; after the driver changes lanes, the vehicle will continue acceleration until it reaches the original preset driving speed.

There’s also Lane Departure Alert, Lane Tracing Assist (LTA), Intelligent High Beams, Road Sign Assist (RSA) (designed to acquire certain road sign information using a camera and navigation maps when data is available and displays them on the multi-information display (MID), Blind Spot Monitor, and Rear Cross Traffic Alert (RCTA).

The 2021 Lexus IS was tested at the newly opened Toyota Technical Center Shimoyama in Japan’s Aichi Prefecture is near Lexus’s global headquarters. It is a 3.3-mile test course designed to take advantage of the local topography, and it features a nearly 250-foot change in elevation, a wide range of curves and corners, and multiple types of road surfaces.

Photos from Lexus

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