2016 Lexus GS F Does Not Deserve Its F Badge

It was heavily rumored that the all-new performance-based 2016 Lexus GS F would be debuting alongside the next-gen RX, and although the redesigned luxury crossover was no where to be seen, as promised, we got our first official look at the GS F.

Lexus wasn’t too shy about sharing GS F details ahead of the premiere, and as we had the skinny on the latest addition to the F line long before the veil was pulled back in Detroit, we knew just how disappointing it was going to be.

You may be asking yourself exactly how a brand-new F model could be dissatisfying when the vehicles that reside in the family serve as the pinnacle of Lexus power and performance. How could a GS variant capable of generating 467 horsepower ever fall short? Well, it has all to do with the engine.

F enthusiasts will notice that the output of the GS F looks strangely familiar. That is because it is identical to the amount of power yielded by the high performance RC F, and that is because it has the exact same engine as the RC F.

The 5.0-liter V8—the same eight-cylinder that Lexus vice president Bob Carter said has helped draw consumers into the showroom—has been shoehorned into the nose of the GS, and although it is able to produce admittedly impressive results that are interchangeable with the RC F, we were sort of hoping that Lexus would have utilized their R&D department a bit more heavily and engineered an entirely new option.

Up until now, the range of Lexus F vehicles has been strictly limited. It has been reserved only for the best of the best from the automaker. For that reason, a GS F that shares a powertrain with its kin doesn’t really seem to justify the expansion of the F family.