Pulling up at the lights with my front wheels on the white line, a Skyline to the left and a HSV to my right a certain Stealers Wheel song popped into my head.
I could have been a fool and floored it on green… and I have not a single ounce of doubt they both would have been a distant memory in my review mirror quite quickly.
But I thought better of it and left them to be the clown to the left and joker to the right in their blaze of chest beating hoonism.
And there I was left, stuck in the middle with…. the brilliantly refined Lexus GSF.
Purring. Me and the car.
Me because I was, despite the bitter cold outside, toasty warm in the heated finely crafted leather seats, the climate control to my precise desire and perfectly in tune with the heated leather-wrapped steering wheel.
The car literally purring in its “Eco” mode setting. The purrs from this 5.0-litre V8 turn to a roar when switched to Sport and a vicious growl when dialled up to Sport Plus.
The Lexus GSF mixes pleasure and performance as good as most high-end luxury models I’ve been lucky enough to test over time.
With a list of interior and safety features which include premium 17-speaker Mark Levinson audio, wide 12.3-inch centre screen, head-up display and a host of driver-assist and active-safety features, there’s plenty packed into the GSF and plenty to like.
Of course, it comes at plenty of dollars … $151,700 plus on-road costs in fact. The HSV driver might well have thought I was the joker at that price.
Still, I was laughing as I passed the Skyline pulled over by police a few blocks later.
And I laughed a little more when out on a winding country road down south a bit later and dialled the GSF into what I now refer to as “Savage Panther Mode”.
You’ll just have to accept the fact the sound-track that is this engine is marvellous. The performance figures thought, should tell you I’m not kidding.
The Japanese-made eight-speed automatic makes good use of the 351kW and 530Nm on offer from this radically good engine and the rear-wheel drive helps it get from 0-100km/h in 4.3 seconds.
And even though I wouldn’t be laughing at an ongoing 11.3L/100km fuel consumption, I was pretty happy being stuck in the middle with this one.
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