Would suit:
Rich bunny-huggers with a penchant for power.
Price:
£38 000-£47 000.
Maximum speed:
250km/h, 0-100km/h 5.2sec.
Combined fuel consumption:
7.93 litres/100km.
It has taken me a while to get around to driving the Lexus GS450h partly, I suspect, because Toyota has been giving priority to politicians over journalists in the allocation of its hybrid media fleet.
Anyway, I have at last driven the Clark Kent of the motoring world and I don't think I have ever been so astounded by a car. The discreet lower-case "h" tagged on the end of the GS450's badge tells us, of course, that this is Toyota's latest hybrid vehicle.
(Colleague Sean O'Grady has already had a go at it. - Editor)
Cue self-congratulatory applause from all who own one and mild moral discomfort from those of us who don't but so brainwashed have we all become into believing that hybrid technology will save the otters and the ice caps that we have missed one other significant benefit that comes from having a huge battery pack in the boot:
IT HAS MORE POWER!
Though the GS450h only has a V6 the nickel metal-hydride batteries that consume most of its boot space give it an extra 138kW and thrust equivalent to that of a V8. Even more thrilling is the way it delivers that extra power.
Press the right pedal in a car with a normally aspirated engine and there will be a slight delay before you begin to feel the effects; if you're in a turbo car and have just pulled out to overtake Eddie Stobart's pride and joy the delay may take on the apparent span of a geological era.
I could explain why but it's really most awfully complex. Let's just say it's because of maths and leave it at that. Anyway, electricity is a quick chap. Zap! And it's there for your overtaking pleasure, aided in this instance by something called a two-ratio torque multiplier which, again, I really don't think you would understand if I tried to explain it to you.
Press the pedal in the Lexus and the thrust comes instantly and, for such a supposedly pious and politically correct machine, there's an unexpectedly horny tingle. This car can out-accelerate a Porsche.
Why didn't they think of this before? As soon as they managed to get the batteries down to a reasonable size they should have set about installing them in every performance car from the Fiesta ST to the Lamborghini Murcielago.
Forget about emissions; batteries burn rubber! As a result, the GS450h is one of the most entertaining performance sedans on the market and a good deal more dignified than a 5 Series.
Calmness and serenity
And that's despite the fact that it weighs a hefty 1.9 tons which, by rights, should mean it handles like a wheelbarrow full of water (or like the RX400h off-roader). It doesn't.
What it might lack in precision and control the Lexus more than makes up for with calmness and serenity.
There is a hush about this car that makes a Jaguar seem positively coarse.
With the next Lexus hybrid - the LS600h, which promises to reach 100km/h in less than five seconds, due next year - and a hybrid Porsche a virtual certainty that electric Lamborghini may not be all that far off after all.
- Michael Booth's "Just As Well I'm Leaving" (Vintage) is out now in paperback.