For the CT, our design team was given an ambitious brief: to create a dynamic five-door luxury compact car for the world’s fastest growing cities. A car with eye-catching lines that boldly stands out – even in places that pulse with energy and brave ideas.
Leading the team was CT Chief Engineer Chika Kako. “At Lexus we’re never content – we never settle for what already exists,” she says. “Our customers are looking for originality and to achieve this we take a radical approach to innovation.”
But what does that mean in design terms? How do you make a car that’s instantly at home in places where the future is being created? The answer can be found at the Lexus Design Centre in Aichi Prefecture, Japan. Here the sophisticated urban look of the CT was fashioned using pioneering virtual reality (VR) techniques. lexus rx 350,lexus rx,lexus suvs,lexus suv,2020 lexus,lexus gx,2020 lexus rx,lexus dealers near me,lexus nx,2020 lexus gx,2020 lexus rx 350,lexus trucks,lexus rx sales,2020 lexus gx 460.
For instance, the ‘Real Scale Theatre’ facility enabled us to simulate the car’s appearance in cityscapes around the world. Using digital urban backdrops from places like Tokyo, London or Milan, our design team was able to evaluate the visual impact of the car’s exterior in the very environments in which it will ultimately be driven.
VR was also used to create the CT’s cockpit.Seated within a mock-up of the car’s interior,Lexus ergonomists and interior designers wore 3D headsets to simulate the location and operation of features like Remote Touch and the new Lexus Premium Navigation with 10.3" central display.
“Each Lexus is human-orientated – this is at the heart of our design philosophy,” says CT Chief Designer Tetsuo Miki. “These futuristic tools allow us to visualise how controls, instruments and design details surround the driver, so we can perfect interiors down to the smallest detail.”
A car designed by machines is a car without soul.Superb craftsmanship defines the CT, as it does every Lexus. You wouldn’t expect anything less from a design tradition that has been strongly influenced by thousands of years of Japanese ‘Takumi’ craftsmanship. “We don’t just want to transport people, we also want to transport their senses,” says Tetsuo Miki.
So, whilst the CT creative idea was conceived in the brains of our designers and nursed in their sketchpads, it then progressed to advanced computers where the car’s lines were elaborated and refined. But then, at a certain point, high technology was put aside. It was replaced by the earthy smell of damp clay as our designers worked with ‘Takumi’ craftspeople who hand-carved the contours of the CT. The intricate sculptural qualities of the surfaces on the new ‘spindle grille’or aerodynamic fins on the door pillars and rear lights owe much to this process.
“My job is to take the sketch and interpret it into a 3D form. The designer has the inspiration, the modeller has the hands,” explains one of the ‘Takumi’craftspeople in the modelling studio. “Sometimes the designer may hold up a bamboo leaf, twist it and say ‘This is what I want', and then I recreate the curve in clay.”
All this lies behind the unmistakable look of the Lexus CT. So when you’re driving it in your city and you notice people taking in its ‘spindle grille’,its sleek profile and sculpted tailgate, you’ll know it’s because we’ve harnessed the best of human creativity and advanced technology guided by a mindset that doesn’t rest until we’ve created a car of great depth and sophistication.